PHILADELPHIA - Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young ripped off his jersey and bounded up the steps of the Wells Fargo Center to toss his dad a souvenir from the first Game 7 road victory in the team's history.
He's going to need a new uniform. The Hawks aren't done.
Young shook off a cold shooting night against the Philadelphia 76ers and improbably helped the Hawks become road warriors one more time, and now they're taking their stunning turnaround to the Eastern Conference championship series in the NBA playoffs.
"We did it in a big way," Young said.
They busted "the process" along the way, too.
Young made a late 3-pointer and scored 21 points to help Atlanta win in Philadelphia for the third time in the series, a 103-96 victory over the top-seeded 76ers on Sunday night.
The Hawks will open their first East final since 2015 against the host Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.
"I felt like they were built for this moment tonight to win this game," Hawks interim coach Nate McMillan said.
Atlanta had been 0-9 on the road in Game 7, but the Hawks ignored their ignominious history and won in Philadelphia, where they had already won the opener and Game 5, and knocked out Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and the rest of the Sixers.
At least for now, it also closes the book on the franchise's debated rebuilding plan known as "the process."
"We gave them life from Game 1," Sixers forward Tobias Harris said. "It's a young, hungry team."
How's this for brazen confidence: John Collins, who had 14 point and 16 rebounds for Atlanta on Sunday, wore during his postgame interview a T-shirt of him dunking on Embiid on Game 6.
Surely even the Hawks couldn't have seen this coming, especially in March when they were 14-20, 11th in the Eastern Conference and fired coach Lloyd Pierce.
Under McMillan, the Hawks turned into birds of prey - and Young led the team's first charge into the postseason since 2017. The fifth-seeded Hawks kept rolling by eliminating the fourth-seeded New York Knicks in six games, and now they've taken down No. 1.
NBA MVP runner-up Embiid, Simmons and a high-priced cast of stars were supposed to put the upstart Hawks in their place. It never happened.
Young shook off an otherwise off night from the floor - he was 5-for-23 - and kept shooting until he hit that 3 for a 93-87 lead with 2:31 left. Kevin Huerter sealed the win with three free throws.
Philadelphia fans let the home team have it and booed the Sixers off the court. The crowd was reprimanded by the public address announcer for throwing trash on the floor.
Embiid had 31 points, 11 rebounds and eight turnovers playing with a meniscus tear in his right knee, an injury he had played through all series.
"I still believe if I was 100%, if we were all together," he said, "I still believe we had a shot at winning it all."
The Hawks had their own health problems. Bogdan Bogdanovic, the team's top 3-point shooter who exited Game 6 with right knee soreness, started and played 21 minutes Sunday, scoring four points and finishing with two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
This marked only the second year since 1973 - when the NBA began seeding for the playoffs by conference - when neither No. 1 seed will make the conference finals. In the Western Conference, the Utah Jazz were eliminated by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Rattled by Game 7 and a packed house on the road? Not these Hawks, who took a 26-point lead in a Game 1 victory in Philadelphia and then rallied from 26 down on the same court to pull out Game 5.
"This team is special, man," Huerter said. "Everybody has counted us out all year. For us to make it this far and win in this building in Game 7, it's huge for us."
Huerter led the Hawks with 27 points.
"With guys going out, we're definitely telling him we need him to be more aggressive and score the ball more," Young said. "He's been doing that, and he did it tonight."
Young was not a factor in the first half, when he had more pushups (three, after he was knocked to the court by Dwight Howard) than baskets (1-for-12). He even got a technical foul for arguing about a rescinded foul call on the Sixers.
Wherever he has been in the playoffs, Young has been fearless and refused to shrink down the stretch even when his shots didn't fall.
"I knew I had to find a way," Young said. "My shot was off. My right hand and shoulder were giving out. But my teammates showed up and made plays. I wanted to come through in the end and help them out."
Simmons took only four shots and refused to take an open dunk late in the game that could have kept Philadelphia in the game. He had a miserable postseason and could have played his last game as a Sixer.
"I'll be honest," Embiid said. "I thought the turning point was when we, I don't know how to say it, is when we had an open shot and we made one free throw."
Asked if Simmons could still be a point guard for a championship contender, coach Doc Rivers said he didn't have an answer.