Former NBA star Jalen Rose agreed with Trevor Ariza’s push on Trae Young after the flashy Hawks star tried to nutmeg him last week. But the now-ESPN analyst has criticized Young’s teammates for failing to come to his aid.
Ariza refused to entertain getting the ball bounced through his legs and being made to look silly, shouldering Trae as he tried to run past him to recollect. And he would have a warning for the first-time All-Star too.
“I told him, ‘Don’t do that sh*t again; not to me, at least,”‘ Ariza said after the Hawks beat the Trail Blazers om Saturday. “I mean, I’ve never made an All-Defensive team or none of that sh*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.”
“I think he handled it perfect,” Rose said of Ariza on the Jalen & Jacoby Show.
“In that case, when he going against a vet like Trevor Ariza and tries to nutmeg him, and tries to make him look crazy, I would like to see one of the people on Trae Young’s team actually come have his back,” he added. “When somebody elbows my slighter-build point guard on our home floor, can somebody come to his defense!?”
Despite the shove from Ariza, Trae has no plans to stop using the nutmeg.
“Nah, I ain’t about to stop nutmegging,” he says. “That’s going to be in my game until I’m done.”
