Trae Young claps back at Charles Barkley with tweet for betting Shaquille O'Neal $ 1 billion over Heat defeating Hawks

Trae Young clapped back at a Hall of Famer after the Atlanta Hawks won their play-in tournament game 116-105 at the Miami Heat. He had words for one of his doubters heading into the tournament.

After the regular season wrapped up Sunday, preparations for the NBA postseason began. One of the main things in order was which teams were going to capture the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference.

On Tuesday night, the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat battled it out to see who would face the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Despite a late push from Jimmy Butler and company, Atlanta stole a win on the road.

Before the game, Charles Barkley bet Shaquille O'Neal a massive amount that Miami was going to win. After the Heat didn't come through, Trae Young made sure to get the final word. He tweeted at Shaq to make sure that he collects on the payment.

.@SHAQ let em know.. 🤣😂 twitter.com/nbaontnt/statu… https://t.co/70TuBlkd7r

Young played a big factor for the Hawks in their win over the Miami Heat. He played 36 minutes and finished with a team-high 25 points to go along with eight rebounds and seven assists.

Trae Young comes up big despite swirling rumors

What made this Trae Young performance even more impressive was that he was a major topic of conversation in the NBA this week. As the postseason began, a report said that the Atlanta Hawks might begin exploring trades for the All-Star point guard.

Hearing your name in rumors is hard enough for players, let alone at this time of year. However, it did not seem to affect Young at all. He put up a near triple-double in a prime-time matchup against the team that shut him down last postseason.

There is a chance that Young used these rumors as motivation to perform well in the play-in game against the Heat. How things play out for the Hawks in the postseason will be a major indicator of if they decide to move on from him.

Moving forward, the road is about to get tough for Young and the Hawks. Next up for them is a meeting with Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics. If they want any shot at making things competitive, they will need a huge performance from their star guard.

All in all, Young should be applauded for his showing against Miami. It can't be tough to perform under that outside noise, and he came up for his team in a big way.