Source - It was on the other side of the planet this past summer when Trae Young unexpectedly revealed to teammates his one and only phobia. As the Oklahoma star freshman point guard was getting ready to climb the volcanic cone of Mount Eden, which overlooks Auckland, New Zealand, something specific spooked him.
The condition is known as ornithophobia. Trae Young is deathly afraid of birds.
"Then there's a group of [pigeons] at this point," McNeace said. "We ran to the birds to make them fly around. And he took off running in the other direction. Yeah, and when we went over to the rainforest, the little parrots were flying past us," McNeace said. "He was freaking out."
Young doesn't trust birds, doesn't know what he would do if his life flashed before his eyes by coming face-to-beak with a crow, cuckoo, sparrow, spoonbill, goose, grouse, turkey, toucan, flamingo or falcon.
"We were in New Zealand and would go to the beaches and all that stuff," Young said. "You know how birds would be friendly to people? I hate birds. All you see is the ocean, the sand and birds flying over you. The birds trying to eat the crabs in the sand and they're all next to you. I've seen a bird attack one of my friends at my high school in the parking lot. Yeah. It scared her. The bird was by her car, she tried to turn and get in her car but the bird was so scared it just attacked her."
Teammates suspect this Kevin Hart bit about ostriches has only reinforced Young's avifaunal neurosis. A couple months back, Shepherd, Young and teammate Chris Giles were getting ready to leave the gym. There's a stairwell out from the facility to the parking lot. A pigeon waited in the stairwell, taunting Young. He refused to leave with his teammates and took the long way out to another exit.
"Like, I don't understand what someone would do if a bird attacked them," Young said. "I don't know how a bird would attack a human, just by poking them with their faces? Or their feet on your face? I'm scared. Flapping their wings: what do you do? Do you grab it? ... And then the big ones, the roadrunners, they're deadly to me. Scary. I can't mess with them. I've had nightmares about birds."
Before we get into the whole bird thing, let's just start with a brief description of Trae Young. He's a skinny 6'2 PG from Norman, Oklahoma who turned down Kansas and Kentucky to stay at home for an opportunity to be "the guy" at OU. Now, as a true freshman given precisely that opportunity, he's leading the nation in scoring with 28.8 PPG while also averaging 8.8 assists with a couple of steals. On top of that, he possesses stupid range and shoots damn near ten 3-pointers a game and converts at a 38% clip. If he maintains this level of production against Big 12 competition he will almost certainly be a lock for the NBA lottery. He's a stud, super fun to watch and worth checking out if the Sooners are playing on TV. Chances are you'll be seeing him in the NBA at some point in the near future and it's always cool to get a look at the next generation.
Now back to those nasty birds. Believe it or not, Trae Young isn't the only basketball player with ornithophobia. Once quick google search revealed that Dwyane Wade shares the same fear, along with David Beckham and Eminem, who is more specifically afraid of owls which is weird because how often does one really come across an owl? Birds in general you see every day but I think I've seen maybe like one owl outside of a zoo in my entire life. I digress.
I love when people are afraid of weird things. Birds actually seems pretty common from what I'm looking at, it's just that I can't ever see myself being afraid of regular birds. I've been attacked by two geese but I was a little kid and everyone knows geese and swans are big time pricks; very in your face, very confrontational by nature - the Sean Penns of the ornithological community. An ostrich would be scary too, but in general I think I'm wary of any living creature that's 9 feet tall. It's totally a size thing. Like I'm not afraid of cats, but I wouldn't be too keen to spend one on one time with a tiger. To just be afraid of an entire species as a whole (aside from sharks) is a totally bizarre sensation albeit one that I love.
Glenallen Hill fell through a glass table and cut himself all over trying to escape spiders he was having a nightmare about, Andy Roddick is afraid of the Easter Bunny, but my absolute all time favorite has to be Eric Berry and his fear of horses. Especially considering every home game he has to divide his attention between being one of the best safeties in the league and making sure the Chiefs horse mascot doesn't bite him in the ass.
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