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. One of the courts is the same hardwood Pachulia used to run on at the Bradley Center when he played for Milwaukee (he had the floor shipped in 267 pieces).