Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia hopes he inspires players in homeland

Warriors' Zaza Pachulia hopes he inspires players in homeland CLEVELAND — In the 1990s, as a young boy growing up in the nation of Georgia, Zaza Pachulia learned basketball fundamentals on the dilapidated courts of a windowless gymnasium. Because there was no heater, he often practiced while wearing a hat and gloves. In place of that old gym today is the Zaza Pachulia Basketball Academy. The complex, which accommodates more than 500 members, features four basketball courts, locker rooms, a weight room, a restaurant and dorm-style living. "I really hope that a lot of Georgian players will get recognition, and I can help them get out, play in the European leagues and the NBA," Pachulia, the Warriors' starting center, said Thursday. By becoming the first Georgia-born player to win an NBA title, Pachulia would remind the kids at his basketball academy in Tbilisi that they, too, can reach the summit of their sport. Of the 15 players on the Warriors' roster, six — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala and James Michael McAdoo — were on the 2014-15 team that won the franchise's first NBA title in 40 years. Only two others, Ian...