Russell Westbrook Accused Zaza Pachulia Of Trying To Hurt Him During Their Incident


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Russell Westbrook has spoken out about his run-in with Zaza Pachulia during Saturday’s game between Oklahoma City and Golden State, and the Thunder guard has come out swinging. Pachulia fell on Westbrook during the Warriors’ 112-80 win over their conference rivals, and due to the nature by which it happened, many hoops fans (and even Kyrie Irving) said this was the latest chapter of Pachulia being a dirty player.

It turns out Westbrook agrees with this assessment. Westbrook met with the media after the game and didn’t hold back, saying Golden State’s big man “obviously” tried to take him out.

“Obviously it was intentional,” an obviously upset Westbrook said. “Asking me if it was intentional, nobody touched him, he fell over my leg trying to hurt me. But hey, that’s how it goes.”

Westbrook was also asked if he believes Pachulia is a dirty player, replying “yeah, for sure.” Paul George wasn’t as fired up as his teammate, but he was fully on board with what Westbrook was saying.


“He aimed where he was going to fall,” George said. “That’s Zaza making a Zaza play, he’s on the end of hurting a lot of guys.”

Pachulia, unsurprisingly, was having nothing to do with these allegations. The veteran center was also asked about the run in and called any allegations that he tried to hurt Westbrook “childish.”

There are few, if any, allegations that can be made against an athlete that are as serious as the one Westbrook made here. Saying someone was actively trying to injury you is a massive deal, and it’s the kind of thing that he can get away with saying in this capacity due to Pachulia’s reputation.

There’s no word on whether the NBA will look into this incident.

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