Photo Credit: USA TODAY Sports
Zaza Pachulia Is Proud That The All-Star Voting Had To Be Changed Because Of Him
Last year, the NBA changed the format for All-Star voting. For the first time, NBA players and media members voted for the Eastern and Western conference starters. Fan votes only accounted for 50% of the total vote, and NBA players and media each shared 25% of the vote.
For the second straight year, Pachulia was in line to become a Western Conference starter, based off fan-votes. Pachulia was second in the front-court votings with 439,675 votes, only trailing his teammate Kevin Durant, but leading players such as Kawhi Leonard (341,240), Anthony Davis (318,144), Draymond Green (236,315) and DeMarcus Cousins (202,317). The reason for Pachulia’s insane amount of votes was his native country of Georgia, who made voting Zaza into the All-Star Game a State Affair.
2017 NBA All-Star Game: West leaders in fan vote: 1.Stephen Curry 2. James Harden 3. Kevin Durant 4.Russell Westbrook 5. Zaza Pachulia pic.twitter.com/kaCQt3F3US
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) January 20, 2017
Since this year’s All-Star voting started yesterday, the same day that I had the opportunity to interview the Warriors’ big man, I asked him if he was disappointed that the All-Star voting system changed last year, or if the support from his native country outweighed the disappointment?
“Thanks for asking me that question because honestly, first of all, I had no idea that All-Star voting started today. When it comes to disappointment, actually I’m proud of whatever happened. Most of my fans, being honest, are from Georgia, Georgia votes. People have been voting for me a lot. We made the league change the rules, so this is the proudest moment for me. And just being realistic, I’m not an All-Star-caliber player. I couldn’t care less about those things, but it makes me proud and happy and something we can all be proud of that the league changed the rule because of us.
Again, the most important thing is that the love and support I’ve been getting from the fans. It’s not easy to get, talking about more than 1.5 million votes and to be one of the top players in the league to get this many votes. It’s pretty cool. It’s fun for me. This is how I look at it. It’s not about being an All-Star. It’s all about the love and support I’ve been getting without me asking one single time to vote for me. It’s all naturally just happening itself.
I’m just enjoying the process. I don’t know what’s going to happen this year. My job is to play and to get healthy right now and to represent the Warriors in a professional way on the court.”
Zaza Pachulia is a national hero in the Repulic of Georgia. Earlier this year, he received the Order Of Honor by Georgian President Giorgi Margverlashvili. The Order of Honor is presented to citizens for their outstanding personal contribution to the building of the independent Georgian state.
We’ll soon find out, if the people of Georgia will vote like crazy for Zaza in the All-Star voting for yet another year.
