After a brief exchange of words between Ja Morant and Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernández on Friday, the Memphis Grizzlies star point guard explained his side of the story.

Morant, who hit a stepback jumper at the buzzer before halftime, shouted "yeah, yeah, yeah" at the Nets bench on his way to the locker room in what he declared an attempt to get Brooklyn "riled up."

"I was trolling," Morant said, per Brooklyn Nets on SI's Wilko Martinez Cachero. "Just to get them riled up, and they did ... "If 'yeah' is disrespectful and it makes you feel some type of way, hey, so be it."

Fernández said he felt disrespected by Morant talking to him during the game, expressing that he would "never speak to other players" besides those he knows.

"The officials are the ones who have to see certain things," he said, per Martinez Cachero. "Again, my job is not to get into any of this. I will never speak to the other coach unless I know him. Like Taylor Jenkins, he's a great coach, and I know him, and I just wanted to say good luck. Same thing with the other players. I'll talk to Santi [Aldama] because I know him.

"Other than that, I will never speak to other players, and I don't want other players to speak to me. If they want to be nice, obviously, it's part of the game. If not, I don't want any interaction. I think it's disrespectful. It's not part of the game. And that's what we are projecting to everybody else, especially the little ones, is play with respect [and] respect for the game, whether you are a superstar or whoever you are."

Things between Morant and the Nets bench flared up again when he had a few words for them after the game. Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins attempted to shut down the altercation, which led to Brooklyn guard Dennis Schröder jawing at him.

Ultimately, Memphis and Morant got the last laugh as they walked away with a 135-119 win behind Morant's 28 points, 10 assists and seven boards in the final game between the two squads this year.

The Nets won the first two meetings with the Grizzlies, giving them the win in the season series.