Why Klay Thompson's recent rehab session amazes ‘coach' Zaza Pachulia

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Though the Warriors have yet to issue a progress report regarding Klay Thompson’s recovery from knee surgery, one of his former teammates not only is monitoring the process but also offering assistance.

Zaza Pachulia, who retired last summer and now works in the team’s front office, has provided the first of what he hopes will be several installments of the "Klay and Zaza Show."

Pachulia has the easier role. He does the passing and encouraging, while Thompson does the shooting and sweating. The first installment was posted on Pachulia’s Instagram account.

“Oh my God, he was better than I thought he would be,” Pachulia said of Thompson on Tuesday. “He finished the workout with 10-out-of-10 corner 3s. I told him, ‘I guess that’s how it is with shooters.’ He told me it’s like riding a bike.”

Thompson underwent ACL surgery on his right knee on July 2. Such surgeries generally come with a timeline between eight and 10 months. Thompson has been doing light individual drills since November, and in recent weeks has gone without a knee brace.

The first session came last Saturday while the Warriors hosted the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center. When Golden State took the floor for the second half, Thompson and Pachulia headed for the team’s practice court in another part of the building.

“He said he wanted to do some shooting, so I offered to help,” Pachulia said. “I did the rebounding and passing. We just started, and it felt good to touch the ball.”

Pachulia enjoyed it enough that he also reached out to Steph Curry, who is sidelined while recovering from surgery on his left hand. An update on his progress is expected in February.

“I told Klay and Steph the same thing, to please call me whenever you’re working out,” Pachulia said. “It’s different when you work out with the young guys, and it’s OK, but there is so much more when you work out with those guys because I have great memories with them.”

Such sessions allow Pachulia to assuage his pangs for basketball while also giving his former teammates what he believes are game-like conditions devoted to specific areas. Baseline pick-and-roll. High pick-and-roll. It can only help that both Thompson and Curry became familiar with Pachulia during championship seasons in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Pachulia pointed out that one thing in particular that reveals the cultural difference between his home continent of Europe -- he’s a native of the Republic of Georgia -- and the United States.

“I was telling Klay that if he was in Europe, he would be playing by now,” he said. “After ACL surgery over there, you’re back on the court in six months.”

That, Pachulia explained, is because contracts in Europe tend to be short and management routinely pressures players to return as early as possible -- even if not 100 percent healthy.

“They don’t care about you,” Pachulia said. “They don’t look at the players in the long term. They worry only about short term.”

[RELATED: What we learned as Warriors end 2019 with loss to Spurs]

Pachulia offered no timelines; it’s beyond the confines of his purview.

If Thompson –- or Curry, for that matter –- wants to record future installments via Zaza, there is little time to waste. Beginning in late January, Pachulia will be attending sports management classes at Stanford.

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