Zaza Pachulia spent just one season playing for the Dallas Mavericks, but that was enough time for owner Mark Cuban to vouch for the Warriors center.
A few hours after Pachulia was at the center of controversy involving an injured Kawhi Leonard, Cuban voiced his support for Pachulia.
In response to an article asking if Pachulia intentionally undercut Leonard, Cuban said on Twitter "No. That's not how Zaza plays."
Pachulia was the focus of the off-day between Game 1 and Game 2.
Early on Monday, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich went off on a rant aimed at Pachulia and his history of incidents.
"A two-step lead-with-your-foot closeout is not appropriate. It's dangerous, it's unsportsmanlike, it's just not what anybody does to anybody else. And this particular individual (Pachulia) has a history with that kind of action," Popovich said at the team hotel in San Francisco.
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"And because he's got this history, it can't just be, ‘Oh, it was inadvertent,' He didn't have intent. Who gives a damn about what his intent was? You ever hear of manslaughter? You still go to jail, I think, when you're texting and you end up killing somebody, but you might not have intended to do that. All I care about is what I saw. All I care about is what happened and the history there exacerbates the whole situation and makes me very, very angry," Popovich continued.
Following Warriors practice a few hours later, Pachulia was asked if Popovich's comments bothered him.
"No, not really, it doesn't bother me. Because I want to say the last time and that's it: I did whatever I had to do," Pachulia said Monday.
The Spurs announced that Leonard is doubtful for Game 2 on Tuesday night.
No. That's not how ZaZa plays https://t.co/BcpwPkc8rB— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 15, 2017
