Warriors Zaza Pachulia says his family was threatened after Gregg Popovichs rant
The day after Spurs star Kawhi Leonard sprained his left ankle when he attempted a jumper and landed on Warriors center Zaza Pachulia’s foot in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich ranted about Pachulia’s history of similar plays. While Leonard sat out Games 2 and 3 and is questionable for Monday’s Game 4 as the Spurs look to avoid a sweep, Pachulia received threats to his family on social media in the days that followed.
“I don’t blame everything on Pop, but what he said had a lot of influence [and] you had a lot of people where, unfortunately, you can’t control what everybody’s intelligence is,” Pachulia told USA Today Sports’s Sam Amick on Sunday. “[Fans] just hear the message, and it’s, ‘Okay, Pop said so and now let’s do this.’ It’s just wrong. You’ve got to think, and realize. Threaten me, but don’t threaten my wife or say something about my kids. It’s just wrong. Me as a person, as a man, I don’t mind dealing with it. But I hate to see my family deal with it. My wife and my kids who have nothing to do with it, who are very innocent. . . . I just hate my family going through that. They don’t deserve that. . . . I’m not blaming everything on [Popovich], but he was a very big part of it.”
Pachulia, who has three children, ages 4, 7 and 8, told Amick that security guards were deployed to his kids’ school as a precaution.
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Leonard told reporters after Game 1 that he didn’t believe Pachulia, 33, intentionally injured him. In his comments the following day, Popovich made it clear he didn’t care about Pachulia’s intent.
“Who gives a damn about what his intent was?” Popovich said, in part. “You ever hear of manslaughter? You still go to jail, I think, when you’re texting and you end up killing somebody, but you might not have intended to do that; all I care about is what I saw. All I care about is what happened, and the history there exacerbates the whole situation and makes me very, very angry.”
Pachulia, who missed Game 3 with a bruised heel and is questionable for Game 4, said he has “a lot of respect” for Popovich but wishes the veteran coach had considered his words more carefully before painting Pachulia as a dirty player.
“I’m going to do defend my team, but I’m not going to send a message saying this guy killed [a player], is a murderer or whatever, manslaughter, because people take it differently,” Pachulia said. “We live in a society where not everybody has intelligence, or understanding or is thinking of what’s right and what’s wrong.”
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