Last night, the Houston Rockets bested the Dallas Mavericks 123-107 in a vicious game that saw eight technical fouls, two flagrant fouls against the Mavericks and one ejection. The game got so out of hand that Rockets guard Trevor Ariza waited for 7’1” Mavs center Salah Mejri outside the locker room after he allegedly said some pretty nasty stuff about Trevor’s wife and kids.
Via ESPN:
According to a source, Mejri made a derogatory comment to Ariza about Ariza’s wife and children between the third and fourth quarters.
Ariza became so upset that he exchanged words with Mejri, which prompted the referees to give Ariza a technical, his second of the game, leading to an ejection.
After the game, Ariza dressed and walked toward the Dallas locker room, accompanied by two security guards. As Ariza and several Houston teammates — including Patrick Beverley, James Harden and Eric Gordon — waited for Mejri, Dallas police officers already outside the locker room as part of their regular detail monitored the situation to make sure it did not escalate.
Mejri, who strongly denied to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that he said anything about Ariza’s family, knew Ariza was waiting for him outside the locker room.
“He was swearing and bulls—,” Mejri said. “Ask him. He’s out there. Ask him.”
Earlier, Beverley, who didn’t play, was sitting on a cart yelling at Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who was leaving his news conference.
“Don’t be mad at us, Coach,” Beverley yelled at Carlisle, who didn’t respond to Beverley. “Way to be an icon, Coach. Have a nice season, Coach.”
What we experienced today as a team. Was the upmost disrespect. And total disrespect to Us and the GAME OF BASKETBALL…Still got the W tho
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) December 28, 2016
Ok, Patrick Beverley. Ok.
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Regardless of what was said to Ariza, I can’t help but be entertained by the personal jabs on the court. I laughed out loud when Kevin Garnett told Carmelo Anthony that his wife Lala tastes like ‘Honey Nut Cheerios’ a few years back. KG doubled down by telling Charlie Villanueva, who has an autoimmune skin disease that results in mass hair loss, that he looks like a ‘cancer patient.’ In the media, KG tried to spin it that he said ‘you’re a cancer to your team.’ Crafty. Fucked up, but crafty. It’s provocative. It’s what the people want.