Zaza Pachulia of the Golden State Warriors isn’t happy with San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.
By now, most NBA fans know Pachulia had the infamous closeout that injured Kawhi Leonard in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, which we covered extensively.
Popovich spoke out, to which Pachulia responded, which we also covered. Long story short, he didn’t have any ill will during the play, per the Mercury News‘ Tim Kawakami:
No. No response. I have a lot of respect for Coach Pop and the organization, whatever they’re going through. A lot of respect. And no comments, no response, and focus on Game 2 is all that’s on my mind.
Some fans aren’t buying it, though, and Pachulia has received death threats and has needed additional precautionary security for his family.
Now he’s spoken out on the matter and hinted that Popovich’s reaction didn’t help, per USA Today:
“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.”
The argument surrounding this quote could go either way. It’s an unfortunate situation all around, though fans who would be stupid enough to send out death threats in the first place probably don’t need the encouragement of a coach to do something so silly.
As it stands, blaming anyone other than the fans for death threats over a game isn’t the approach law enforcement will take to such matters.
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