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NBA ALL-STAR 2020February 14, 2020Trae YoungRJ BarrettChicago, Illinois - Rising Stars USA 151 - World 131 Q. So you hugged Luka tonight. It was a great moment. What was your favorite moment tonight? TRAE YOUNG: I had a lot of favorite moments. Probably that was -- that moment with Luka. I was the one who told him to shoot the half-court. I think he was about to pass, and I said, You'd better shoot that half-court shot. He did, and it went in. That was just a crazy moment. So that was fun. There's so many highlights from guys, like Miles -- if it was a real game, I would have got a tech from how far I ran out on the court to dap up Miles, but it was a lot of fun moments. Q. Trae, did you realize that Zion kind of bent the backboard on that dunk in the second quarter? TRAE YOUNG: Oh, he did? Q. Yeah. TRAE YOUNG: I didn't realize. Did we play the whole rest of the -- Q. It was towards the end of it. TRAE YOUNG: Yeah, I didn't even realize that. That isn't the first rim he's probably bent or he's going to break throughout his career. I'm surprised I didn't see it, but, yeah, that's crazy. Q. Trae, when you go into -- it's kind of a unique situation for you because this is your first of three events. Does that change your mindset at all, or are you, okay, I have to take it a little easy? What's kind of your philosophy? TRAE YOUNG: No. For me coming into this weekend, obviously, the main thing I don't want to do is get hurt. So I just want to come out, play hard, compete, but at a rate where it's smart. So, yeah, I wasn't taking it easy or anything like that. It's just being smart and honestly knowing I have a long weekend, especially with these next two days with the Three-Point and the All-Star Game. It's being smart about how I approached it. So, yeah, that's how I was acting. Q. You were behind at halftime. What did you say to teammates to motivate them? TRAE YOUNG: We had to stop RJ Barrett from scoring. No, we just had -- I mean, obviously, every All-Star Game it always starts out, I mean, guys kind of messing around, taking bad shots and just trying to make some highlights plays, and then once you get more towards the end, people start to play more serious. I think that's kind of what happened today. Obviously, they got into a lead, up by ten at halftime, and we were just kind of more locked in late in that game. Q. Trae, you got to meet Barack Obama earlier today. What was that like for you? And what did you guys say to each other? TRAE YOUNG: Yeah, that was -- I mean, that was probably the highlight of my day, being able to meet him. That was the first time I've ever met him. It's crazy because he knew so much about me and telling me how much he's followed me throughout college and then here in the pros. It was kind of crazy. Obviously, I look up to him and a lot of the stuff he does in the community, things like that. So that was probably the highlight of my day. Q. This is, I guess, for both you guys: This seems like the first year you've seen players subtweeting and making comments about not making the Rising Stars Game. Do you think the importance of this game is kind of reaching a different level as far as how much players care about it? RJ BARRETT: I guess growing up now we get to see this game a lot, and I feel like, if you're a rookie or a sophomore, this definitely is a game you want to play in. So, yeah, I feel like it's pretty important. Q. RJ, how's it going? Your coach was just up here not too long ago, and he said he saw a look in your eye, and he said that you were out there trying to compete basically every possession. It's kind of a generic question, but what was your mindset entering this game, and how did you kind of like try to put your impact on it? RJ BARRETT: I don't know. I guess it's an All-Star Game, but I really only know how to play one way, but it was a lot of fun. I didn't press too much. I went out there and had fun, took opportunities when I could, tried to make some nice passes too. So I just played the game. Q. Just going off of that, can you walk me through what you were thinking when you stopped Zion on that fast break and if you guys shared any words after the game? RJ BARRETT: So right before that, I shot a three in the corner. I don't even know if it was him, but somebody on the court was talking trash, and then I missed it. So when I saw him running, I was like, nah, he's not about to dunk it. Q. RJ, what was it like being out there with three other Canadians? RJ BARRETT: Man, it was great. It was great to see Canada on the rise, and two of those guys, I basically grew up with. So it was a lot of fun. Q. RJ, it seemed like you shared a couple of fun moments with Luka out there. How much had you guys had a previous relationship before, and what did you kind of learn about him and his personality tonight? RJ BARRETT: I worked out with him a couple years ago actually, and I didn't really know much about him. So I was 16. He was 17. I thought he was like a pro. I thought he was like 25. So to see him now, it's great. We've got the same agent, so we interact some here and there. Trae knows, Luka's a great guy. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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