Trae Young Biography

Trae Young, also known as Ice Trae, was born Rayford Trae Young, on September 19, 1998, in Lubbock, Texas, US, to Candice and Rayford Young. His father, Rayford, played college basketball at Texas Tech and then played professionally in various European countries, such as France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.

He grew up with his younger brother, Timothy “Tim” Young, and two younger sisters, Caitlyn and Camryn. One of his uncles too played college basketball in the NAIA.

Since his father usually stayed away from home, as he played basketball overseas, Young was raised by his mother and paternal grandparents in Pampa, Texas. He later attended Oklahoma’s Norman North High School and the University of Oklahoma.

While attending Oklahoma's Norman North High School, Trae Young represented the school’s basketball team. As a senior, he recorded 42 points per game, and at the time of his graduation from high school, he became the country’s second-best point guard.

He was also selected to join the McDonald's All-American Game and bagged the honor of the Gatorade Player of the Year in Oklahoma in 2016 and 2017. In 2017, he participated in the Jordan Brand Classic.  He also won the McDonald’s All-American Three-Point Contest and became the runner-up at the High School Three-Point contest in the Final Four.

At the University of Oklahoma, Trae Young played for the Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball team. He also scripted history as the first 5-star prospect, since Tiny Gallon in 2010, to represent the University of Oklahoma.

While with the Sooners, he tied (with 3 more players) the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record for assists in a single game, with 22 assists (2017), and scored 26 points. He was soon named for the 2018 NBA Draft.

In his only season with the Sooners (2017-2018), Young averaged 27.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 1.7 steals in 35.4 minutes, while starting 32 games. He also bagged the Consensus First Team All-American honor after becoming the first player in the history of Division I to lead his country in scoring and assists.

While he made a record scoring average, which was the highest in the history of Big-12, his “assists per game” score was ranked all-time second. He won the Wayman Tisdale National Freshman of the Year award in 2018 and was also a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team that year.

He also became the conference’s Freshman and Newcomer of the Year and was the first major conference player in the history of NCAA to tally 800 points and 250 assists in one season. He was the third Oklahoma freshman to score 600 points and the only player to become the NCAA topper in both points and assists in a single season.

In the 2018 National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft, Trae Young was selected by the Dallas Mavericks as the 5th overall pick. However, he was soon traded to the Atlanta Hawks.

In his rookie year with the Hawks, he averaged 19 points and 8 assists. He was also unanimously named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In his 2nd season, Young averaged almost 30 points per game and made it to his first NBA All-Star game.

In 2020-20201, which was his 3rd season with the Hawks, Young led his team to an NBA Eastern Conference Finals game. However, his team lost in 6 games, as Young suffered a foot injury and missed a few games.

In August 2021, Young signed a contract extension agreement for a 5-year (maximum) period. In January 2022, during the 2021-2022 season, his team lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 136-131, though he scored a career-high 56 points and 14 assists. On January 27 that year, Young made it to the 2022 NBA All-Star Game as a starting backcourt player.

At the start of Young's 5th season, the Atlanta Hawks decided to acquire Dejounte Murray of the San Antonio Spurs. This strengthened the defense of the Hawks, while reducing Young's offensive duties.

On October 19, 2022, Young and his team were faced with the Houston Rockets. The game had Young score 23 points and 13 assists. In the same year, he was named to the All-NBA Third Team.

In February 2023, Young scored 34 points and 8 assists in a 129-127 win over the Brooklyn Nets. In April that year, Young scored 27 points, apart from setting a career-high 20 assists in a 136-131 loss against the Philadelphia 76ers.

In the 3rd game of his team’s 1st round playoffs, against the Boston Celtics, Young scored 32 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists, in a 130-122 win. He and Dejounte Murray became the first pair of Hawks to individually score at least 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in a playoff, since Lenny Wilkens and Bill Bridges had achieved the feat in 1966.

In the 5th game of his team’s 1st round playoffs, against the Boston Celtics, Young scored 38 points and 13 assists, in a 119-117 win. However, the Hawks eventually lost to the Celtics in 6 games.

As part of the US men’s basketball team, Young has won the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Chile in 2016. The two-time NBA All-star (2020 and 2022) now makes more than $3 million annually from his various endorsements.

The most notable of all his endorsement contracts is the one with Adidas. Young and Adidas have also collaborated on a trademark shoe. Young has also been associated with brands such as Through the Lens, Bodyarmor, Old Spice, Tissot, Fortnite, Chipotle, eBay, and NBA2K.

Young met his long-time partner Shelby Miller at the University of Oklahoma in 2017, and they began dating in 2018. Miller is a talented dancer and is known for her college cheerleading. She studied communication and media at the University of Oklahoma.

In June 2022, the couple had a son. Young once revealed on Instagram that he and Miller were planning to get married.

Young is fond of tattoos. He sports a tattoo that reads Always Remember on his right forearm. His right bicep has a tattoo of arrows pointing upwards, while his left forearm has the word Blessed inked on it. The left side of Young’s torso has a Bible verse tattooed on it, while his left thigh has a tattoo of heaven's gates.

Young owns a mansion worth $1.5 million in Norman, Oklahoma. He was featured in season 2 of the Young Hollywood docu-series Rookie on the Rise.