Earlier this month, it was reported that Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young and John Collins had experienced something of an altercation during a film session, leading some to wonder whether major drama might be brewing. However, Young asserted on Thursday that whatever happened between the two of them was largely overstated by the media.
According to the former No. 5 overall pick, it was little more than a run-of-the-mill disagreement between teammates that was settled in short order.
“Of course if there’s anything out there publicly, I always go directly to [that person],” Young told Yahoo Sports ‘ Chris Haynes. “As for the John [Collins] incident, me and him talked about it as soon as it got out the next day and we were both confused.”
As relayed by The Inquisitr , the incident occurred a handful of weeks ago as the team was reviewing tape of its 113-108 loss to the New York Knicks on January 4. Per reports, Collins had expressed a level of dissatisfaction regarding the way in which Young was leading their offensive attack.
During the session, Collins reportedly shared his belief that the Hawks should reduce their early-clock shot attempts and bolster their ball movement and overall flow on offense. He further opined that he should be more involved offensively.
Although Young was said to have refrained from engaging in a back-and-forth argument at the time, sources with apparent knowledge of the incident later indicated that he strongly disagreed with Collins’ assessment.
In spite of those reports, Young maintains that what happened was business as usual for the Hawks and that he and his teammate are on good terms.
“It was over a regular film session. So there’s no beef or anything in there to begin with. There hasn’t been any locker room issues on my side. Anything that people were saying about locker room issues, there hasn’t been one,” he said. “It’s all about our team and how we’ve been trying to get better in film sessions.”
The 2020-21 campaign has been an up-and-down affair for Atlanta so far as they enter Friday’s games with a 9-9 record — good for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. They have quality wins over the likes of the Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers on the books but also experienced a four-game losing streak earlier this month.
As tracked by Basketball-Reference , Young is averaging 26.2 points, 8.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds per contest, while Collins is producing 16.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
