Golden State Warriors’ center Zaza Pachulia (right) says he’ll be ready for Russell Westbrook’s “revenge”. (AP/Rich Pedroncelli)
After an ugly commotion during a regular season game last week, it’s safe to say that there’s no love lost between Oklahoma City Thunder’s electric superstar Russell Westbrook and Golden State Warriors’ enforcer-like center Zaza Pachulia.
The 6-foot-11 Georgian ran into the MVP candidate and was assessed with a “flagrant foul 1” for the unnecessary contact and his bullish action. Afterwards, Pachulia stood over his fallen adversary and looked down on him with a menacing scowl.
Zaza lays out Westbrook and stands over him pic.twitter.com/oCFEn1peJq
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) January 19, 2017
After the game, Westbrook addressed the situation and told reporters he would get his revenge.
“Nah, I didn’t see that (Pachulia standing over him) until just now, but I don’t play that game,” he told USA Today. “I’m gonna get his (expletive) back soon. Whenever that is, I don’t know when it’s gonna be, but I don’t play that game.”
Meanwhile, Pachulia, who has shown little remorse since the incident, claims that his actions were simply a form of retaliation.
“First of all, I didn’t mention where everything started, and maybe that’s my fault not to make it clear that I didn’t start that conversation or incident on the court,” the 13-year veteran told San Franciso’s KNBR-AM, as relayed by The Score on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
“He elbowed me right (before the) previous play before I gave him a hard foul. He elbowed me. He lost the ball and threw the elbow in my face. We went on the fast break, Steph (Curry) had the layup and here they come and that’s when I took the hard foul,” Pachulia added.
His claims were not caught by in-game cameras, but Pachulia insisted that it was Westbrook who started the whole scrimmage.
“So it was kind of payback from my side. Like I said, a lot of people didn’t know that. I didn’t talk about it. I think it’s fair for me to say now.”
Pachulia, who’s been regarded as a role player for much of his career, surprised the league after receiving over 1.5 million All-Star votes this season. But after taking in the votes from coaches, players and the media, he was left out of the West’s starting line-ups and would most likely be excluded from the list of reserves.
Despite Westbrook’s threats, Pachulia said that he’s not losing sleep over the incident and is ready for whatever the feisty point guard has for him in their next encounter.
“After the game, he made comments and I made my comments. I said I’ll be there, I’ll definitely be there in OKC. So whatever he wants to do, I’ll be on the court,” he boldly proclaimed.
The Warriors-Thunder rivalry continues to be one of the most intriguing storylines this season, mainly because of Kevin Durant’s departure from OKC to San Francisco.
The two powerhouse teams will meet for a third time this season on February 11 (February 12 in Manila). Khristian Ibarrola