The Warriors’ Season Ticket Member Virtual Happy Hour, presented by Budweiser and hosted by Kelenna Azubuike, returned Thursday with a live video chat with former Warriors center and two-time NBA Champion Zaza Pachulia. The interview, held on Facebook, included a special opportunity for Dub Nation’s Season Ticket Members to ask Pachulia their burning questions.
In a nearly hour-long online conversation, the duo covered topics from “The Last Dance” documentary, the NBA’s growth internationally, and hijinks with his Warriors teammates during his two seasons with the squad. Take a look at some of the quotes and responses to Dub Nation’s questions below.
AZUBUIKE: “You won two Championships with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018. If you had to make a documentary on one of those teams, which year would make a better documentary?”
PACHULIA: “They both were different, they had different challenges… Every day you deal with something and that’s where it gets the most interesting: not necessarily on the court stuff, but off the court.”
AZUBUIKE: “Would you say 2018 was harder for you guys because you were defending and you got the mental fatigue and everything that comes with that?”
PACHULIA: “It was more difficult, yes it was. For me maybe second year, second Finals in a row and for David West and some guy who just joined, but for Steph (Curry), Klay (Thompson), (Draymond Green), Andre (Iguodala), Shaun (Livingston), it was, what was it, their fourth time? …We’re still human beings, we’re not robots. So your body gets worse, plus you age, too. You’re getting older, you’re not getting younger. As veteran players we had to pay attention to all of those details.”
AZUBUIKE: “You mentioned taking business classes at Stanford. How has that virtual experience been?”
PACHULIA: “I’m huge on education, especially with today’s reality. Education is such an important tool for success, and probably the most important one. When you look at it in a big picture… we need education as a society and as a country. It doesn’t matter what stage of your life you’re in, learning never stops. I’m a huge believer in that. This COVID-19 taught me I’m privileged to get classes from Stanford because they are one of the best in terms of business, but at the same time there’s so many other ways to learn. So many webinars, or on the internet you Google anything you want to… you’re literally getting free classes. We should take advantage of it.”
On May 6, 2017 in a 102-91 win over the Utah Jazz, Pachulia scored seven points in 13 minutes of action, while Thompson posted six points in 39 minutes. Pachulia made two framed sets of the boxscore and the San Francisco Chronicle for the duo.
DUB NATION: “What was the first thing Klay (Thompson) said to you after you gave him the framed article after you outscored him?”
PACHULIA: “Oh that was unexpected, that was one of the highlights of the year. I have one for myself too, to be honest. That was a legendary moment because it’s not easy to outscore —especially for a center in 2018, you kidding me? I had to frame that article for Klay… One of the amazing sides of that team was we were having fun.”
AZUBUIKE: “You guys had a bunch of stuff like that like the dunk-off… all that stuff had to make it more fun for you guys.”
PACHULIA: “I was most proud of it last year in Detroit (with the Pistons) — there’s a two or three hour difference between time zones, and Warriors would always play right after us — while I’m driving home or eating dinner after our game, suddenly my phone would just go crazy with notifications. I said ‘what’s going on? Somebody get traded, did I get traded?’ The whole Dub Nation is tagging me talking about ‘Klay just got a dunk!’ The funny thing was the score like, in the middle of the season, was like 5-1 (dunks in favor of Pachulia). I was like ‘oh my goodness.’”