Stephen Jackson: I would've slapped Zaza for falling on Russ

Stephen Jackson thinks Zaza Pachulia is a dirty player who's fortunate to be playing in today's NBA.

"He's lucky he's in the league at the right time. He would've got knocked out four or five times (in the past) for the stuff he's done," Jackson said Monday on "UNDISPUTED."

The Golden State Warriors center, who has often been accused of playing dirty, recently fell on Russell Westbrook's lower body. The Thunder point guard is convinced the fall was intentional, but the Georgian big man dismissed the notion as "childish."

Jackson, who played in the NBA from 2000 to 2014 and was involved in the infamous "Malice at the Palace" brawl, said he would've resorted to violence if he was Westbrook's teammate.

"I wish I was on OKC the other night because I definitely would've slapped him for what he did to Russ. Nick Young's foot is not 280 pounds strong where it can push you and knock you down, where you're standing straight up and you can't brace yourself. ... Basketball players know how to fall. We go up for layups and crazy shots all the time and find a way to land on our butts."

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Jackson continued to blast Pachulia, even calling for the NBA to discipline him.

"Everything he does is dirty, and he does dirty things to make up for lack of talent. Let's be honest, he's not that good. ... He's just a dirty player. This is another incident that they need to look at. ... Russ is right. He could've easily braced himself. He didn't fall, he went to hurt this guy and the league gotta do something about it."

Related: It's up to the NBA to punish Zaza Pachulia's dirty antics

While Westbrook wasn't injured, others haven't been as fortunate. Jackson brought up Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference finals, when Pachulia undercut the Spurs' Kawhi Leonard as he was landing, causing a season-ending ankle sprain and the implementation of the "Zaza rule."

"The Kawhi move definitely in the playoffs, he definitely would've got taken out," Jackson said. "I remember when (Gregg Popovich) used to put me in games to go take hard fouls on certain guys. I would've took more than a foul on him in that game."

Jackson had caught the tail end of the previous era, which was characterized by more physicality ahead of the introduction of a series of rules in 2004-05 aimed at eradicated hand-checking.