One San Antonio Spurs fan is so upset with Warriors center Zaza Pachulia he’s decided to take legal action.
San Antonio fan Juan Vazquez filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Pachulia and the Warriors organization on behalf of Spurs season ticket holders and San Antonio card shop What’s On Second, as first reported by the San Antonio Express-News.
The suit is related to an incident in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, when Spurs star Kawhi Leonard re-aggrivated his ankle after landing on the foot of Pachulia, who scooted under the shooter as he contested the shot. Many have called the play dirty, with some even going so far to claim it was intentional. Vazquez is certainly in that camp, with his suit alleging that Pachulia acted “without excuse or justification, intentionally and maliciously invaded the landing zone of an opposing athlete, Kawhi Leonard.” Vazquez is seeking $73,000 and a temporary restraining order to be placed on Pachulia.
“All we are asking from the court is that this type of behavior, that can and does cause serious injury to our team and those that love it, not be allowed in San Antonio,” Alfonso Kennard, Jr., lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Express-News. It goes onto say that the incident “devastated the quality of the Spurs’ chances of being competitive and having additional games in their home arena, both in the Western Conference Finals and also potentially in the NBA Finals” and also negatively affected “the value of the tickets purchased by plaintiff subsequent to their purchase.”
The play knocked Leonard out for the last 20 minutes of Game 1 and all of Game 2, both of which San Antonio lost. Leonard remains questionable for Game 3. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich fanned the flames on the situation on Monday, going on a tirade regarding Pachulia’s actions calling them “dangerous,” and bringing up his history of being involved in questionable incidents.
“This particular individual has a history with that kind of action,” Popovich said. “You can go back and look at Dallas games where he got a flagrant two for elbowing Patty Mills. The play where he took Kawhi down and locked his arm in Dallas and could have broken his arm. Ask David West, his current teammate, how things went when Zaza was playing for Dallas and he and David got into it.”