| Real Name: | Nicholas Aaron Young |
| Birthday: | June 1, 1985 |
| Net Worth | $25 Million |
| Height: | 2.01 m |
| Occupation: | Professional basketball player |
Nick Young is one of the most entertaining NBA players. But what it does for his net worth?
The American professional basketball player got drafted in 2007. He played at USC before. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1985, Nick Young is a meme king in the NBA. His nickname is Swaggy P, a reference to his swagger, charisma, and character.
Nick Young plays at shooting guard and small forward position. Let’s take a look at his career, salary, and fame.
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Career Highlights
Before entering the NBA, Nick played for the University of Southern California from 2004 to 2007. He got named All-Pac-10 First Team two times. He led the fifth-seeded Trojans to a berth in the Sweet Sixteen in the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Following his junior season, he declared for the 2007 NBA draft. The Washington Wizards selected him with the 16th overall pick.
Young debuted on December 15, 2007, in a game against the Sacramento Kings. He had a rather whirlwind career with the Wizards. On January 9, 2010, he got fined $10,000 by the Wizards for participating in a Gilbert Arenas antics. Arenas pointed finger at his teammates imitating gun shooting. And they got photographed smiling and laughing.
On March 15, 2012, the Wizards traded Young to the Los Angeles Clippers in a three-way trade. He helped the Clippers clinch their first playoff berth in 6 years with a 19-point performance against the OKC Thunder. After the season ended, Young signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
On July 11, 2013, Nick signed a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. In his first season with the Lakers, he averaged career 17.9 points per game. The next summer he resigned with the Lakers on a reported four-year $21.5 million deal.
Because of a radical collateral ligament injury in his right thumb, Young missed the first 10 games of the season. He made the season debut on November 18 against the Atlanta Hawks. He suffered another injury in November 2016. He missed two weeks and then came back with a 32-points performance against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Between December 2016 and January 2017, Young hit 36 three-pointers in eight games. It is the most threes hit in an eight-game stretch in Lakers franchise history. The Lakers shut him down for the last five games of the regular season. And in June 2017, he did not exercise his option to extend the contract.
After getting the unrestricted free agent status, Swaggy P signed with Golden State Warriors on July 7, 2017. He helped the team win the 2018 Championships, earning his first NBA title.
On December 10, 2018, he signed with the Denver Nuggets. Just 20 days later, the team waived him after only four games.
Net Worth, Salary and Earnings
During his NBA career, Nick Young earned almost $40 million. That is not a lot, but it is not little as well. He got paid $1.7 million in the first three seasons with the Wizards on a rookie contract. His biggest contract is the four-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. He earned more than $5 million per year during that period. He also earned $5 million per year from the Golden State Warriors.
As of June 2020, his net worth is more than $25 million. If he likes, he can also earn money through social media.
Young is one of the more popular athletes. He is not a star, yet he has millions of followers. It is all due to his charisma, antics, and character. Swaggy P has more than 3.4 million followers on Instagram.
His salary could be higher if not for fines. In total, he paid $95,063 in fines over his NBA career. Most of those are due to ejections and technical fouls.
The Meme King
We said before Nick Young is the meme king of the NBA. How it all started? Confused Nick Young is one of the more popular memes on the internet. It refers to a reaction image featuring Young with question marks surrounding his head. The meme got popularized on Black Twitter to express confusion online.
Let’s talk about the origin of the meme. On July 22, 2014, Cassy Athena uploaded a video of the web series Thru The Lens featuring a day in the life of Nick Young. During the show, he made a perplexed facial expression when his mother claims he was a clown in his younger years. The screen capture of the scene circulated online.
There were other variations of the meme. On July 13, 2015, a Twitter user posted a photoshop of Young wearing a sombrero with the caption “Que”. Within two years, the tweet got more than 4,000 likes.
Another Nick Young meme is from Men in Black meme. Twitter user Chadordan23 photoshopped Young dressed as an agent from the movie franchise. He held a mind eraser tool, captioned with a joke about a recent breakup.
The best part is Swaggy P loves the memes. In January 2016, actor Lamorne Morris posted a video of presenting the confused Nick Young to the player during a basketball game. The video gained more than 300,000 views in just 24 hours.
Personal Life
Young had an on-again and off-again relationship with his high school sweetheart Keonna Green. They dated since 2002. Together, they have three children, two sons, and a daughter.
Young also dated Iggy Azalea. They got engaged on June 1, 2015. But Iggy broke off the engagement after a video of an affair with another woman surfaced online. After that, Young got back to Keonna. Green said she is pregnant with Young’s second child.
Nick Young and Kevon Looney are cousins. Looney is another NBA player. They even played together on the Warriors during the 2017-18 season. He is a cousin of rapper Kendrick Lamar as well.
His nickname, Swaggy P is a pseudo-biblical reference to “the Prophet of Swag”.