Pachulia played with Curry, Antetokounmpo

Buried somewhere behind pictures of his four children, Zaza Pachulia still has the image on his phone of Stephen Curry, in October of 2018, congratulating Klay Thompson on breaking the NBA record with 14 3-pointers made in a single game. What stands out to Pachulia is not necessarily Curry

jumping in the air or his ear-toear grin, but the fact that Curry is celebrating Thompson breaking his own record.

These are the sort of moments that stand out to Pachulia when he recalls playing with Curry — the greatest 3-point shooter in league history, three-time champion and two-time MVP. But Pachulia has to go back a ways when remembering playing with another two-time MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo, when Antetokounmpo was a rookie with the Milwaukee Bucks. Antetokounmpo, drafted No. 15 overall in 2013, came into the league as a skinny 19-year- old out of Greece and had Pachulia as a teammate.

Like Curry, Antetokounmpo would go on to change the geometry of the game. Instead of demanding attention beyond the 3-point arc, however, he forces teams to send help in the paint, where his numbers are comparable to prime Shaquille O’Neal.

In this way, Curry and Antetokounmpo are similar, and Antetokounmpo selecting Curry

as his 2019 All-Star teammate was a nod to their mutual respect. On Friday, the two will face off in a marquee Christmas Day game.

The Bay Area News Group spoke with Pachulia about the differences between the two superstars, what they are like as teammates, and who is more difficult to defend. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q

: Do people ask you much about playing with both Steph and Giannis?

A

: Because towards the end of my career I played with Steph, everybody remembers that. When I tell people I played with Giannis they don’t remember it as much because I played with him in the first two years of his career, so he was not as flashy. Most of the questions are about playing with Steph, and not necessarily about Giannis. You’re one of the first five people that have asked me that question. When you talk about Steph, what’s your favorite story from the couple years you played there that you like to tell?

To me, the most important thing with Steph is his humanity. Because

I’ve played with multiple superstars and very few of them — I’ll probably say Dirk ( Nowitzki) that comes to my mind — and Steph are definitely on top that they treat everybody the same from top to bottom. He doesn’t care what status you have in the organization, there is no hierarchy for him. He treats everybody so nicely and says hello. It’s amazing. And it’s a challenge, to be honest, to be able to have a conversation with every single employee of the organization and be nice and spend a couple minutes here and there, especially when you’re a superstar and there’s so much going on, on and off the court.

Everybody knows that Steph Curry changed the game. He’s such a great athlete, but that’s all we see on the TV, on the highlights on social media. I wish we could see what type of people they are more, because that’s the leadership to me, that’s the inspiration to me.

Q

: Is there a specific instance that you remember when Steph showed that leadership toward you when maybe you needed it, or to a teammate? A : His work ethic is insane. We all know Steph Curry on the court, making a lot of spectacular plays, shooting 3s from anywhere, from the half court.