Zaza Pachulia (Georgian: ზაზა ფაჩულია; [zɑzɑ pɑtʃʰuliɑ] born Zaur Pachulia; February 10, 1984)

[1]
 is a Georgian-Turkish professional basketball executive and former player who is a basketball
operations consultant for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
He won two NBA championships with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018. He has played for the Georgia
national team, captaining them in multiple tournaments.[2]

Contents

 1Professional career

o 1.1Early years

o 1.2NBA

 2Personal life

 3Career statistics

o 3.1NBA

 3.1.1Regular season

 3.1.2Playoffs

o 3.2EuroLeague

o 3.3National team

 4See also

 5References

 6External links

Professional career
Early years
Pachulia started playing basketball at an early age in Georgia. He was approximately 6 feet 8 inches
(2.03 meters) at the age of 13. He was scouted and recruited by the Turkish professional
team Ülkerspor when he was a teenager. He became a member of the Georgian junior national
basketball team at a young age, leading them at various tournaments.[3]

NBA
Once he distinguished himself with Ülkerspor, Pachulia was drafted in the second round by
the Orlando Magic during the 2003 NBA draft. After being selected in the 2004 expansion draft by
the Charlotte Bobcats, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks where he played the 2004–05 season.
[4]
 While with the Bucks, Pachulia averaged 6.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game off the bench.
Pachulia with the Atlanta Hawks in May 2008

Pachulia signed a contract with the Atlanta Hawks[5] in the 2005 off-season and became the Hawks'
starting center, when he averaged 11.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game during the 2005–06
season. He began as the starting center during the 2006–07 season but later came off the bench.
An on-court altercation between the relatively obscure Pachulia and Celtics star Kevin Garnett led
one writer to dub Pachulia "Balboa" after the lead character from the Rocky series of movies.
[6]
 Pachulia re-signed with the Hawks on July 13, 2009, agreeing to a multi-year contract.[7]
During the 2011 NBA lockout, Pachulia signed with Galatasaray of the Turkish Basketball League.
[8]
 He later returned to the Hawks in December 2011.
On July 17, 2013, Pachulia signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.[9] On March 20, 2015, he recorded 22
points and 21 rebounds in a 129–127 overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets. His 21 rebounds included
18 offensive rebounds, which marked an NBA season high and a Bucks franchise record.[10]
On July 9, 2015, Pachulia was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a future second-round
pick.[11] He made his debut for the Mavericks in the team's season opener against the Phoenix
Suns on October 28, recording a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 111–95 win.
[12]
 On December 26, he recorded his 16th double-double of the season with 17 points and 12
rebounds against the Chicago Bulls, surpassing his 2014–15 season total.[13] On January 12, 2016,
he recorded his 20th double-double of the season, and the 100th in his career, with 14 points and 12
rebounds in a 110–107 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.[14] Later that month, he came within
14,227 votes of knocking out San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard for a starting spot on
the West All-Star team for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game.[15] On February 3, 2016, he recorded 10
points and 15 rebounds against the Miami Heat for his career-best 22nd double-double of the
season. His previous best was 21 double-doubles, set with Atlanta in 2005–06.[16]
On July 12, 2016, Pachulia signed with the Golden State Warriors.[17] On December 22, 2016, he had
a season-best game with 15 points and 14 rebounds in a 117–101 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
[18]
 Pachulia helped the Warriors finish the 2016–17 regular season with 67 wins. During Game 1 of
the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs, he had an infamous closeout foot slide on Kawhi
Leonard,[19] which ruled out Leonard for the rest of the series and effectively ended San Antonio's
season.[20] While Pachulia denied that he intended to injure Leonard, he was instantly dubbed a
villain by the public and media.[21] The Warriors went on to win the 2017 NBA Championship after
defeating the Cavaliers 4–1 in the NBA Finals. Pachulia made history for Georgia by becoming the
first player from the country to win an NBA Championship.[22] The Warriors finished the playoffs with a
16–1 record, the best postseason winning percentage in NBA history.[23]
On July 25, 2017, Pachulia re-signed with the Warriors.[24] On December 30, 2017, he scored a
season-best 17 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists in a 141–128 win over the Memphis
Grizzlies.[25]
In a game against the Thunder on February 25, 2018, Pachulia again caused controversy as he fell
onto Russell Westbrook's knee after a play. Westbrook stated in an interview after the game that he
believed Pachulia's fall was intentional with the intent of injuring his knee.[26] Teammate Kevin Durant
later defended Pachulia stating that he had gotten his feet tangled up with Nick Young in the
incident,[27] but Pachulia was criticized by many players, coaches and pundits such as Paul George,
[26]
 Kyrie Irving,[28] Gregg Popovich,[29] describing the incident as yet another in a long list of
controversial dirty plays in Pachulia's career. The NBA officially stated that they would not discipline
Pachulia over the incident.[30] In June 2018, Pachulia won his second straight championship as a
member of the Warriors, after they defeated the Cavaliers in a four-game sweep in the Finals.
On July 15, 2018, Pachulia signed with the Detroit Pistons.[31]
On August 29, 2019, Pachulia retired from playing and re-joined the Warriors' as a front office
consultant in their basketball operations department.[32][33]

Personal life
Pachulia legally changed his first name from Zaur to Zaza.[1] He and his wife, Tika, have two sons,
Davit and Saba, and a daughter, Mariam. Beginning in 2004, Pachulia hosted annual free summer
basketball camps for children in different locations throughout Georgia until 2016 when he
established a basketball academy in his native Tbilisi.[34]
In 2017, Pachulia received the Order of Honor from Republic of Georgia president Giorgi
Margvelashvili.[35] He also holds Turkish citizenship.[2]

Career statistics
Legend

  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game

3-point field Free

 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%   FT% 
goal percentage throw percentage

 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game

 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Won an NBA
 † 
championship

NBA
Regular season

Ye Tea G G MP FG 3P FT RP AP SP BP PP
ar m P S G % % % G G G G G

2003 Orland
59 2 11.3 .389 - .644 2.9 .2 .4 .2 3.3
–04 o

2004 Milwau
74 4 18.9 .452 .000 .746 5.1 .8 .6 .5 6.2
–05 kee

2005
Atlanta 78 78 31.4 .451 .000 .735 7.9 1.7 1.1 .5 11.7
–06

2006
Atlanta 72 47 28.1 .474 .000 .786 6.9 1.5 1.1 .5 12.2
–07

2007
Atlanta 62 5 15.2 .437 .000 .706 4.0 .6 .4 .2 5.2
–08

2008
Atlanta 77 26 19.1 .497 .000 .709 5.7 .7 .5 .3 6.2
–09

2009
Atlanta 78 1 14.0 .488 .000 .650 3.8 .5 .5 .4 4.3
–10

2010
Atlanta 79 7 15.7 .461 - .754 4.2 .7 .4 .3 4.4
–11

2011
Atlanta 58 44 28.3 .499 - .741 7.9 1.4 .9 .5 7.8
–12
Ye Tea G G MP FG 3P FT RP AP SP BP PP
ar m P S G % % % G G G G G

2012
Atlanta 52 15 21.8 .473 .000 .757 6.5 1.5 .7 .2 5.9
–13

2013 Milwau
53 43 25.0 .427 .000 .846 6.3 2.6 .8 .3 7.7
–14 kee

2014 Milwau
73 45 23.7 .454 .000 .788 6.8 2.4 1.1 .3 8.3
–15 kee

2015
Dallas 76 69 26.4 .454 .000 .768 9.4 1.7 .8 .3 8.6
–16

2016 Golden
70 70 18.1 .534 .000 .778 5.9 1.9 .8 .5 6.1
–17† State

2017 Golden
69 57 14.1 .564 .000 .806 4.7 1.6 .6 .2 5.4
–18† State

2018
Detroit 68 3 12.9 .440 .000 .782 3.9 1.3 .5 .3 3.9
–19

1,09
Career 516 20.3 .469 .000 .751 5.8 1.3 .7 .3 6.8
8
Playoffs

Ye Tea G G MP FG 3P FT RP AP SP BP PP
ar m P S G % % % G G G G G

2008 Atlanta 7 0 15.0 .280 .000 .714 2.9 .3 .3 .0 4.1

2009 Atlanta 11 1 23.6 .415 - .762 6.9 .3 .5 .3 6.9

2010 Atlanta 11 0 14.6 .514 - .625 3.5 .3 .2 .6 4.6

2011 Atlanta 11 0 17.7 .478 - .773 4.9 1.2 .2 .1 3.5

Milwau
2015 6 6 21.5 .400 - .615 6.7 1.5 1.7 .5 6.7
kee

2016 Dallas 5 4 22.4 .375 - .882 5.4 3.2 .6 .2 6.6

2017 Golden
15 15 14.1 .533 .000 .765 3.8 .8 .5 .3 5.1
† State

2018 Golden
7 0 3.7 .571 - .750 1.7 .1 .4 .1 2.4
† State

Career 73 26 16.4 .446 .000 .738 4.4 .8 .5 .3 5.0

EuroLeague
Yea
Team
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