The NBA’s only player to hail from the Republic of Geogia, Zaur (Zaza) Pachulia, went on American television news station CNN last night and plead for peace between his home land and Russia.  The conflict between the two countries over South Ossetia, which claimed independence from Georgia in the early 1990s, escalated last week when Georgian military entered the small unrecognized republic.

Since then Russian forces have since answered with a large scale bombardment in defending the 90% of South Ossetia’s population that holds Russian passports.

While most of the world’s attention is on the Olympics in Beijing, Pachulia calls this time “the most stressful of his life” as he tries to stay in contact with his friends and family who are half the world away.

“Because of my age,” says Pachulia, “A lot of my friends are still serving in the military. I have been able to get in contact with some of them, but others I have no idea. It’s scary – I just want the fighting to end. Innocent people are being killed or losing their homes, and that just can’t continue.”

Zaza is supposed to travel back to Georgia next week to begin playing with his national team as they try to qualify for the 2009 European championships, but now that is up in the air.

“There are more important things than basketball going on right now,” said Pachulia. “I want to go home and represent my country, but we can’t be playing games when we have to worry about the stadium we are playing in being bombed.”

Pachulia plans to continue to do all he can to help resolve the situation, but was quick to say that politics is not his game.

“I am not trying to talk about who is wrong and who is right,” he said. “The most important thing to me is that there be peace, and that the people of Georgia not have to live in fear for their lives or their homes.”

I normally try to stay away from these type of politics, but sometimes basketball and these kind of world events intertwine.  I think it’s necessary to see how professional athletes and how they deal and are affected with these real-world issues.   I can’t imagine having to go through something like this.  Or something like what Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic went through during the Kosovo war of the mid-late 1990s.

Links and Resources: Zaza Pachulia appeared on CNN yesterday afternoon (PortSpaces.com), Vlade Divac: NATO is Wrong on Larry King March 29, 1999 (YouTube)