Trevor Ariza Told Trae Young 'Don't Do That S--t Again' After Nutmeg Attempt

Trevor Ariza sent a message to Trae Young during Saturday's game between the Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trail Blazers when the veteran forward hip-checked the guard after Young tried to nutmeg him, drawing a flagrant foul.

As the two players met on the court after Atlanta's 129-117 win over the Blazers, Ariza pulled Young in close and made sure he also gave him a verbal warning. 

"I told him, 'Don't do that s--t again; not to me at least,'" Ariza said, per The Athletic's Jason Quick. "I mean, I've never made an All-Defensive team or none of that s--t, and he's an All-Star, so he can be creative by ways to get around me. But all the, like, funnies? I'm not with the funnies. I don't like the funnies."

Young seemed nonplussed by the foul and also didn't sound like he'll be changing his playing style anytime soon.  

"It was nothing. Competitiveness," Young said of the foul. "I play at my own pace, I'm super excited when I play ... play with a lot of excitement. But at the end of the day, I'm tough and still going to play hard ... I mean, I'm competitive. It's fun to play that way."

This was simply a battle of youthful exuberance against veteran toughness. Young saw Ariza's legs wide open, out of position, and decided the best way to get around his larger frame was to go through them. Ariza, having been around an NBA block a time or six, decided to give the second-year star a taste of tough love as a result.

The foul was correctly called as a Flagrant 1, a message-sender but nothing deemed worthy of tossing Ariza. It's unlikely the incident will result in any further discipline from the NBA; it was clear Ariza wasn't out to hurt Young.

For Ariza, now in his 16th NBA season, it came down to a matter of respect. 

"I ain't been nutmegged, period," Ariza said. "I've been crossed over, I've been dunked on, there's been a lot of s--t. Those are basketball plays. But that's ... I mean, I guess it's legal."