Honorary Warrior For Life, Zaza Pachulia? Plus JaVale McGee election results; & open thread

NOTHING EASY

The master list of Honorary Warriors For Life lists everyone already polled.

Introducing Honorary Warriors For Life

The concept is simple. You get to vote on the question “Is X an Honorary Warrior For Life?”

What does that phrase mean? I once tried to define it, and people found it more fun to bring in their own definitions, so it is now back to being kept vague, like “Most Valuable Player” or “Greatest Of All Time” or “Sandwich” or “Taco”.

You can vote at the Substack poll at the end of this section, or in the comment sections with a #YES or #NO.

The Nominee: Zaza Pachulia

(Basketball Reference stats)

Zaza Pachulia joined the Warriors in summer 2016. The Warriors had ejected defensive rock Andrew Bogut to make cap room for the Kevin Durant free agency signing, leaving them without a big man. JaVale McGee was the splashier signing, but Zaza ended up being the solid, steady starter.

He was in fact an elegant passer and made the system hum nicely.

He was an unspectacular defender, but was solid (advanced stats like DBPM rated him as a plus defender).

He also ended up playing the enforcer at times, most famously feuding with Russell Westbrook.

SportsCenter @SportsCenter

Zaza falls on Russ. Westbrook's reaction shows his feelings about it.

If you watch carefully, Russ falls and executes a dirty pull-down of Nick Young which makes Zaza happy to be falling on Russ.

SportsCenter @SportsCenter

Russell Westbrook got a Flagrant 1 for this hard foul on Zaza Pachulia.

He had an unexpected bromance with Klay Thompson, including their oddball dunk contest (which Zaza in fact won).

Zaza came back to work for the Warriors as a consultant to the basketball operations team, but as a player he’s departed so he is eligible for our HWFL consideration.

The Poll

Vote in the embedded Substack poll below, or in the comments. Comment votes count as 10 normal poll votes.

*** To have your comment vote count, you must put #YES or #NO somewhere in the body of your comment, exactly once, and add a few words of explanation.

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JaVale McGee Election Results

The results are in from our previous vote and it was a close one.

• Weighted Vote: 79.7% Yes.

  • Poll 74%, Comments 81%.

The comment votes pulled JaVale just over the 75% Honorary Warrior For Life threshold. Congratulations!

Honorary Warrior For Life, JaVale McGee?…

The original Dunkomatic 3000

• Five Alarm Freddy (8 ♡):

  Pierre gets in just for Parking Lot Chronicles.

  He gets in just for his incredible commitment to JUGLIFE.

  He gets in for rocking twin ducktails.

  He gets in just for giving everyone blankets with pictures of Draymond snoring.

  Hell, he gets in just because Pam Freaking McGee is his mom.

  Yes he gets in. Yes he is an official Warrior For Eternity. Legend, we miss you.

• mDuo13 (7 ♡):

  The only silver lining to the Lakers winning the bubble championship is it made JaVale one of the few active players with 3+ rings.

  Dude has played into the second round of the playoffs or later every season since '17 and is also an all-around upstanding citizen. Happy to claim him as an honorary Warrior. #yes

• Alas Phood Fight (6 ♡):

  JaVale McGee has 2 capital letters in both his first and last names. That alone should get one into the Hall. Outside of that, McGee is the Poster Child for Warrior's Gold Dust. "Sprinkle me, Man! Sprinkle me!" If you are an NBA player and want to change the course of your career, come play with the Warriors. And no-one will ever outdo McGee and how his career path or player narrative changed after playing here. Nuf said.

• Goofus (5 ♡):

  #YES

  This thread is a great reminder of why so many of us are envisioning Wiseman as “Javale with a jumper” (and without the asthma restrictions) and getting excited.

• The Bratch (5 ♡):

  It's a #yes on JaVale for me. His charisma was relentless, his on-court entertainment value was huge, and he is the reason the term "vertical spacer" is now a thing my brain knows. What more could I ask for?

• crusty quips (5 ♡):

  #Yes and it's embarrassing that this is even a debate. JaVale is a 2x champion with the Warriors playing a limited but very important role for them both in the regular season and the playoffs. As I've said before, championship seasons are worth more than non-championship seasons, and in my estimation significantly. Not only that, but JaVale has had the open respect and admiration of everyone around the team and the organization both while he was here and after he left. If there is any character element of a HWFL, and I think that there is, it's just one more argument for JaVale. Not that he needs any as a key component of a B2B 2x champion team.

• AKChaz (4 ♡):

  #yes

  couple of observations from the 'all 64 dunks' highlights

  1. the large percentage of assists from Curry and Green...Green especially seemed to be looking strictly to set up McGee with lobs w/o thinking score first

  2. EA can you send these highlights to Wiseman for him to study?

• Janet (4 ♡):

  #yes JaVale deserves it for his skill and for inspiring the crowd every time he took the floor as well as standing up to Shaq. And for his Parking Lot Chronicles series which I miss to this day!

• stopnpop (3 ♡):

  #YES

  “The JaVale McGee Role” says it all. It's been ~5 years since he last wore a Dubs uniform and we're still mentioning that role.

• Asher B. (1 ♡):

  #NO. To qualify for this prestigious honor, a player has to at a certain point do more than wear the uniform and play in some games, show some minimal productivity. But that's what Javale did. Nothing about Javale's career says "Warriors" any more than other clubs. Nothing about his play says "Only Javale could have helped us then." He was aight.

  • achiappanza (2 ♡):

    This is my first vote in the polls, and I vote #No for the same reasons.

    JaVale's bigger mark as a Warrior was to be the first guy to have his rep salvaged by them.

• GlueAndBold (1 ♡):

  #No. I love Javale, and I fully appreciate that the Dubs rejuvenated his career. Maybe it's because it's been awhile and I'm just not seeing clearly or anything. I was a big fan of his when he was here, and he seems like a good guy. For some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, he doesn't clear the bar for me. I think part of it is that JTA and GP2 really raised the bar for me on what non-star players could be on this squad.