A lot of players were involved in a confrontation between the Rockets and Clippers that began on the court Monday night and spilled over into the locker room, but it sounds like Trevor Ariza was very much at the center of the embarrassing melee.
Ariza and Blake Griffin were ejected with just over a minute remaining in the game after they got into it. The two players walked down separate tunnels to their respective locker rooms, but Ariza’s blood obviously continued to boil. Reports indicated Ariza was one of several Rockets players who tried to enter the Houston locker room through a back hallway. According to Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, Ariza tried to go after Griffin and was restrained by his teammates. He also had an ugly exchange with Austin Rivers.
According to a Rockets source, Ariza was waiting on Griffin, and when the game ended he charged from the hallway into the Clips locker room. When Rivers spotted Ariza near the entrance, according to the source, he said: “Let his b—– a– come in.” Ariza then turned his attention to Rivers.
ESPN reported that Ariza was flanked by three teammates—Harden, Paul and Gerald Green—but their purpose was unclear. “They were holding Trevor back,” the source said. Security was summoned and no punches were thrown…
The NBA is investigating exactly what happened between the two teams, and all of these accounts will likely be taken into consideration. Whatever the case, all the memes and tweets we saw provided a good summary of how much the Rockets and Clippers embarrassed themselves. What should have been the end of a regular season basketball game turned into an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show.”
