A retired Milwaukee Bucks’ basketball court is going to Georgia. No, not underfoot at the Atlanta Hawks’ arena, but halfway across the world in Tbilisi, Georgia, in Central Asia.
The idea came from former Bucks, now Dallas Maverick player Zaza Pachulia, a native Georgian. He was teaching at a basketball academy in Tbilisi when he noticed the court looked familiar—it was the same exact one he learned on as a boy, decades ago.
Luckily, his former team had recently replaced its court and needed to get rid of the old one. Pachulia approached the company that installed the new court, Action Floors Systems (Mercer, Wis.), and shared his idea to bring the old court to Tbilisi.
“When Zaza [Pachulia] approached us with this opportunity we immediately agreed to participate,” said Tom Abendroth, president of Action Floors Systems LLC, in a statement. “What we’re doing here with Zaza and the academy is giving the children of Tbilisi the opportunity to have the best court experience while playing the wonderful sport of basketball.”
Pachulia purchased the court from the Bucks, and Action Floor Systems will disassemble, ship and reassemble the court in Georgia. A grand-opening ceremony at the Zaza Pachulia Basketball Academy in Tbilisi is scheduled for early June.
