Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle messed with a reporter who asked him about the Thunder being ‘dirty’

Game 3 of the Dallas Mavericks-Oklahoma City Thunder series got chippy on Thursday -- Raymond Felton got really frustrated trying to box out Steven Adams, for example. On Friday, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said he was “concerned” about the Thunder starting altercations with his team:

Later on, an Oklahoma reporter asked Carlisle for his thoughts on how the Thunder used to be “sweethearts,” but now have become more “dirty.” Carlisle proceeded to mess with the reporter for maybe trying to get him to be more chippy with his criticism. The jig was up immediately after this reporter asked his question.

Tramel: “When you first played them, they were sort of fresh-faced sweethearts. Now they got guys like [Steven] Adams and [Serge] Ibaka -- they get pretty dirty inside.”

Carlisle: “What’s your name again?”

Tramel: “Berry Tramel.”

Carlisle: “Berry Tramel from The Oklahoman? And you just said that ... [the Thunder] are dirty and what?”

Tramel: “I said now they get down and dirty.”

Carlisle: “They get down and dirty? Just want to make sure you were on record as saying that -- you cover the team every day?”

Tramel: “Not every day.”

Carlisle: “You said Adams and Ibaka are the two ...”

Tramel: “... and Ibaka are the two -- I mean, they got --”

Carlisle: “They’re initiators?”

Tramel: “Initiators is a good word. Instigators.”

Carlisle: “This is Berry Tramel from The Oklahoman, covers the team every day that’s saying this. How about anybody else on their team that does that?”

Tramel: “Probably everybody does it.”

Carlisle: “Everybody does it?”

Rick Carlisle doesn’t play like that. The full excerpt can be found here.