The infamous Zaza Pachulia is at it once again. But first off, before I explain what he did and how he is a dirty player, it is noted that he has been in headlines throughout this season and the one prior for bad reasons. Zaza Pachulia has played for different teams, but he has been playing for reigning champion Golden State Warriors for years now.

It is as clear as day to me he has been making dirty plays while trying to injure top stars. The league needs to review and do something about this man because he has done it several times and has a history.

I think there is a big reason to why Pachulia does what he does.

A clear history

As I said before, it is so obvious in my opinion that he is a dirty player in the NBA. He has been doing this for other teams even before his stints with the Warriors. He has tried to hurt other big name stars like Kawhi Leonard, who he caused to injure his ankle and which caused him to miss the playoff series versus the Warriors. He knew that Leonard was battling ankle injuries throughout that season and still targeted him. The San Antonio Spurs were up by over 20 points, but could not secure the win for the first game of the series.

Leonard actually has not been healthy this entire season for the most part and I believe it is partly because of the aftermath caused by Pachulia.

Kawhi has been sidelined this season due to a quad injury but is set to come back sometime in March.

It was so clear to me by the replay that Pachulia sabotaged the injury to Leonard. After Leonard shot the ball from the corner for three, Pachulia continued to slide his foot from under him. His reaction at the end of it looked staged to me and it looked like he was acting afterward to make it seem like it was by accident.

The replay footage to me showed an obvious attempt to take him out and it makes sense to me because with Kawhi, the Spurs still, in my opinion, had a very good chance of defeating the Warriors.

Another incident

Zaza's latest attempt has been directed to star player Russell Westbrook. Watching the game a couple of games ago, and by replay yet again, it looked like it was clearly obvious that he tried to injure Westbrook.

The guard went down after missing a layup, and as he missed, Pachulia fell on top of Westbrook's legs. Now, nobody pushed Pachulia and by the replay, it looked obvious that he meant to do it on purpose. Westbrook gave the media a realistic response that he did it purposely and tried to hurt him. I agree 100 percent.

Action

In my opinion, Zaza Pachulia plays dirty to compensate for his lack of talent. He does not rebound the ball well, does not score enough, and his defense is okay at best. With other talented centers around the league, Pachulia is close to the bottom in my eyes; to the middle at best. Statistics from the ESPN database show that the player is only averaging 5.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, below his career averages of 7.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

Pachulia does the dirty work for the Warriors, besides Draymond Green. Various players on the Warriors have declined that Pachulia is a dirty player or that he has tried to hurt players, but they obviously are not going to admit it because he is on the same team. No player would be trying to string their own player out like that. I don't think that its right though.

The NBA needs to do something about this because Pachulia has been caught multiple times trying to take out top basketball stars. If they do nothing, he will continue doing what he does, since he has not received any sort of punishment. And it could lead to a star getting severely injured. How many more instances do we need to see before a star gets injured or he keeps on doing it?

Basketball players, above all, need to be safe, and Pachulia is deliberately trying to end stars' careers. The league needs to hand down some sort of punishment or else it will spell doom for the league. More players will play dirty in response. And that is not welcome at all. If the league does not do anything, which it looks like it won't, it will cause a shift in the game that will not be welcomed.
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