Hawks’ Trae Young named NBA All-Star Game starter for 2nd time in his career

For the second time in his four NBA seasons, Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young was named to the NBA All-Star team Thursday night.

Young makes the Eastern Conference team as a starter on the back of another stellar first-half of the season where he’s averaging 27.7 points, 9.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game for Atlanta.

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Young finished in the fan voting for guards in the conference with Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan.

“Truly Blessed !! Thank you to the Fans ALWAYS LOVE !! 2X!!” Young tweeted Thursday along with a message poking fun at NBA analyst Charles Barkley.

Frontcourt players chosen to start in the Feb. 20 game include the East’s top vote-getter, forward Kevin Durant of the Nets, who will be the team’s captain.

Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Philadephia’s Joel Embiid also finished at the top of frontcourt voting. All three will be in the starting lineup with Young and DeRozan.

LeBron James will be captain of the Western Conference team with starters Nikola Jokic, Andrew Wiggins, Steph Curry and Ja Morant.

The game will be played as part of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend and will be held at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans arena.

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Young and the Hawks have shown signs of turning around a very slow start to this season. The team has won their past five games including a 121-104 win over Sacramento on Tuesday night.

The win moved Atlanta to 22-25 on the season and are just a half game out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference just over halfway through the season.

It has been quite a few months for Young. Along with his All-Star vote and Hawks’ current streak, Young also got engaged to his college sweetheart Shelby Miller last month.

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Atlanta Hawks team up with nonprofit to help a group of south Fulton students The Atlanta Hawks joined with the nonprofit Vision to Learn to surprise a group of Camp Creek Middle School students with eye exams and free custom glasses. (WSB-TV)

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