Mavericks Center Salah Mejri Denies Saying Anything Offensive to Trevor Ariza

Salah Mejri
Salah Mejri (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

Dallas Mavericks center Salah Mejri and Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza clashed several times on the court tonight, with both players engaging in a war of words across an overall chippy four quarters of play from both teams. The Rockets blew the Mavericks out, winning the game 123-107.

Trevor Ariza, who confronted Mejri over at the Mavericks’ bench after the third period ended, was noticeably upset and had to be restrained by team officials. He was assessed a technical foul, his second of the evening, and was ejected from the contest.

ESPN’s Calvin Watkins reported early Wednesday morning that Mejri said something to Ariza about his wife and young kids, sparking his anger. Mejri was immediately met with mass criticism on social media for allegedly crossing a line players are not expected to ever cross.

Ariza, along with at least one other teammate, waited outside of the Mavericks’ locker room with hopes of confronting Mejri about the incident, a source told Def Pen.

There were no physical incidents following tonight’s contest, sources told Def Pen. Both Ariza and Mejri, along with their respective teams, left American Airlines Center without any further altercations.

Salah Mejri vehemently denied to Def Pen that he said any personal comments involving family to Ariza following the contest.

“I didn’t say nothing about his kids and wife or family,” Mejri tells Def Pen. “How am I supposed to know that he has kids or a wife? He got pissed because of the technical fouls and the way he got ejected from the game. Don’t try to put it on me.”

Mejri continued, emphasizing that he hopes to focus on the future and success of his team, rather than discuss what happened in tonight’s contest any further.

“I don’t want to focus on this too much,” Salah Mejri said. “I prefer to put my energy for the good of my team. I really don’t want this thing to get bigger for no reason. I didn’t do anything bad, and my conscience is good.”

Those around the multiple incidents that occurred tonight fully expect the NBA to launch an investigation into what happened, with additional fines or suspensions possible but unlikely.

Salah Mejri, who’s in his second season with the Mavericks, is averaging 2.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in just 14.5 minutes this season. His role has slightly expanded since last season, with the 30-year-old getting an average of three more minutes per contest through 27 games so far.

Tonight’s contest between Houston and Dallas featured several chippy plays, some that happened on the court, and some that happened off of it. The bad blood began with a flagrant foul committed by Andrew Bogut on a screen in the second quarter:

That was talked about later by both sides, with James Harden complaining about the Mavs’ “cheap shots” (via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon):

“That other team was trippin’ tonight, just disrespectful, unprofessional, players and coaches. I don’t know what was their problem, but I think that got us going. They wanted to throw a little cheap shot and just woke us up a little bit and it was over from there.”

Andrew Bogut was not pleased with the officials’ decision, either:

“They don’t give me explanations anymore. I have to go appeal it through my agent and through the GM here and try to get my money back. But if you watch the replay, he made no effort to run around my screen, so obviously I turned to protect myself and hit him and he went face first into my shoulder. Yeah, it was a hard screen. I set hard screens, but to get a flagrant for it is kind of head-scratching when I feel like Justin Anderson had his wrist in a jiu jitsu hold four plays later and that was just brushed off as a regular foul. You admire the effort the league’s put in with Secaucus with that beautiful facility where that watch replays and watch TV and have leather chairs and all that stuff, but you scratch your head at a lot of these things. And it becomes very, very frustrating.”

That was not the only confrontation of the night, however. Justin Anderson and Nene got into it while boxing out, with both players being assessed technical fouls. Dwight Powell was assessed a flagrant foul of his own for a hard foul to the head of Ryan Anderson, an injury that reportedly caused loud cracks going down his neck at the time.

Rockets guard Patrick Beverley took to Twitter to give his thoughts on the game:

He also boldly yelled to Rick Carlisle at his post-game presser, despite being intentionally ignored by the veteran coach at the time:

Tonight’s game between the Rockets and Mavericks was as personal as it gets, with a new rivalry suddenly emerging on the NBA scene following the numerous technical fouls, flagrant and ejections were given in the chaotic contest. Unfortunately for fans, these two teams are not scheduled to play each other again this season. Perhaps that is fortunate for commissioner Adam Silver.

This story will be updated with further information as it comes.

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