Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young is excited to become a husband.
Young — who proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Shelby Miller, last December — will say “I do” in a ceremony set to take place in the summer of 2023, he told The Post.
“The engagement happened in the season, so I didn’t really have a break,” he said. “I was so focused on basketball. But now, she’s been doing all the wedding planning.”
Young isn’t hands-off when it comes to wedding planning, but he’s letting Miller take the reins.
“She will ask me little details here and there about what I like, but I’m kind of letting her do her thing,” said Young, who was admittedly “nervous” to pop the question last December.
“I knew what she would say, obviously, but it was a nervous moment.”
Although Young doesn’t yet have any specific music requests to play at the couple’s wedding reception, he said, “I’m already a slow jams guy. We always listen to slow jams [together]. There will be good music for sure.”
Young and Miller revealed their engagement news in matching Instagram posts. The photos featured the point guard down on one knee in front of a blue balloon arch surrounded by candles. The floor was covered in white rose petals and a nearby sign appeared to say, “Marry Me.”
Young and Miller, a former University of Oklahoma cheerleader, first met while attending the school. She made their relationship Instagram official back in October 2017, when he showed up to watch her cheer at an Oklahoma football game.
Young’s offseason has consisted of making up for lost time with his fiancée and family, following an early exit in the first round of the playoffs to the Heat in April.
“I am always locked in, but now I’m locked into different things [in the offseason],” he said. “I try to take my little brother to school or lunch or whatever it is. That’s a priority for me. Just little things like that. It’s important for me to do other things outside of basketball. That’s not the only thing about who I am.”
After the Hawks escaped the play-in tournament as the No. 8 seed in the East, they were eliminated by the Heat in five games in the opening round of the playoffs. That came a season after Young led Atlanta to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, in which the Hawks were eliminated by the Bucks in five games.
“I just want to continue to be better in my efficiency, and I’ve gotten better efficiency-wise every year since getting into the league, so continuing to take that route,” Young said about his focus in preparation for his fifth NBA season. “I’m getting older, so getting stronger and being in the best shape are two of my biggest focuses going into next season.”
The 23-year-old is all about being positive. His Trae Young Family Foundation advocates tuning out negativity and checking in with yourself. It partnered with Trident Gum, which donated $200,000 the cause in celebration of Mental Health Awareness month. It’s a vision he tries to stay true to.
“I want to be a better version of myself,” he said. “It’s not necessarily about proving anyone wrong. I’ve already beat the doubters by being here. It’s more about continuing to prove the people right that believe in me. I don’t focus on these little details of proving people wrong. I try to be positive with what I think about. I have one of the best strength coaches in the game in [Travelle Gaines].”
His 2021-22 stats back up his positive thinking: He finished sixth in the NBA in points per game and third in assists per game while leading the Hawks to the second-best offensive rating in the league last season.
With his season over, however, he can focus on some positivity off the court. Like, say, getting married and partying with some slow jams.
