Eric Paschall was the talk of the NBA on Monday night.
The Warriors rookie celebrated his 23rd birthday by racking up 34 points and 13 rebounds.
But let's go back to what happened Saturday against the Hornets, when Paschall scored a then-career-high 25 points.
He really wanted to have a big game that night because PJ Washington was standing in his way.
Marcus Thompson of The Athletic has the backstory:
In a team session before the Warriors played Charlotte last week, coach Steve Kerr went around the room asking his players if they knew any of the Hornets' youngsters. When he got to PJ Washington, the rookie forward Charlotte selected with the No. 12 overall pick, Eric Paschall had some insight.
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"Steve was like, ‘Anybody know this guy?'" Draymond Green said Monday night, recalling the meeting. "(Paschall) was like, ‘Hell yeah, I know something about him. He ducked me all pre-draft. But I'm on his a-- tonight.' And he went out there and did it. And I loved it."
Thank you Draymond for bringing this to light.
Perhaps Paschall would have been selected higher than No. 41 overall if Washington didn't avoid going against him in pre-draft workouts.
Whatever the case, the Villanova product took his frustration out on the forward from Kentucky:
PJ Washington wanted no part of Eric Paschall here = big boy dunk pic.twitter.com/aRm90E0k8y— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) November 5, 2019
Eric Paschall is just too strong for PJ Washington, and he reminds PJ about that with the quick 💪 pic.twitter.com/oN95LSz9Ln— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) November 5, 2019
Eric Paschall calls for the iso on PJ Washington, makes the jumper, gets fouled and talks a whole lot of trash (Glenn Robinson loves it 😂) pic.twitter.com/FjBoFMGdUc— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) November 5, 2019
And then Paschall carried the trash talk over to his postgame press conference:
Eric Paschall: "Like I said, I felt like I had a mismatch and I felt like I had it going." Talk that noise rook pic.twitter.com/2AqK8RpqtT— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) November 3, 2019
You got to think that Paschall had this game circled on his calendar for quite some time. In the months leading up to the draft, he wanted to show NBA scouts and executives that they should take him over Washington.
[RELATED: Jazz star Mitchell loves big night for Dubs rookie Paschall]
He apparently didn't get that opportunity and that provided ample motivation.
The Paschall-Washington rematch is set for Dec. 4 in Charlotte. Mark your calendars.
