Toni Kukoc tells his perspective

Interesting read.

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/ian_thomsen/11/17/sonics/2.html

Kukoc speaks from experience

The Milwaukee Bucks' 37-year-old forward Toni Kukoc is one of the big winners in world basketball. As a young Croatian, he won three European club championships before emigrating in 1993 to join the Chicago Bulls, with whom he eventually helped Michael Jordan win three NBA rings.

As someone who's been instrumental in leading the foreign invasion of the NBA, Kukoc's words carry the weight of experience.

On the impressions of the NBA shared by European players before he arrived as a 25 year old from the Italian club Benetton Treviso:

"I don't want to say we were afraid of the NBA. It was an enigma for us. It was something that nobody knew how to explain to us; we didn't know what to expect. We saw the games on TV, the highlights, but you cannot get any perception of what's going on until you get here and you're living the lifestyle. What I would tell the young guys right now, if you know how to play basketball there is nothing that can scare you about the NBA. Just be physically prepared and everything else will come."

On the fundamental superiority of European players:

"In those days 12-15 years ago, I think we were fundamentally better prepared than the young American players. Our coaches [in Europe] didn't care if we were guards or centers: They wanted us to dribble, pass, shoot, move without the ball. We would do individual skills for two hours every day, and then try to put all that together playing 5 on 5.

"I felt that the teams here were built like, 'I need two shooters, need two rebounders, a couple of good defenders and a couple of all-around guys.' And that's the basis of how the guys are getting paid now. You have guys that rarely shoot the ball but are very good rebounders and they get paid because they're rebounders. You have guys who are just shooters and you put them in there to shoot and to score and they're getting paid for that.

"What extended my career was that I could play all kinds of positions, and I would know the plays. I see that the coaches in NBA really like the guys that are versatile, that play a couple of roles and that are mentally into what they're doing so they can help the other guys on the team."

On NBA stars:

"I don't see that many stars. To me basketball stars are players such as Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, maybe Kobe [Bryant]. But I think if you get 35 minutes of playing time and you have a blank check to shoot anytime you want to, it's very easy to score 25 points. The stars to me are the players who raise the level of the team play, not only their indivual play.''

On the fundamental deficiencies of young Europeans players now coming to the NBA:

"The scouting got so advanced that there's not a guy who plays basketball in the world that some [NBA] scout didn't see. They're trying so hard to get guys that they're bringing in 17- to 18-year-old guys in the draft who didn't average 10 minutes a game [in Europe], who didn't play an important game in their life. They're looking for a talent, not a player.

"When we were coming here my generation -- the late Drazen Petrovic, Dino Radja, Vlade Divac, me, [Arvydas] Sabonis, [Sarunas] Marciulonis -- had already won European championships, world championships, Olympic games. So we went through all the big games, we knew how to handle pressure. That's the reason we were the first generation that succeeded in coming to the NBA.''

On whether the NBA has overfished the European market for players:

"I would like to see our guys spend a couple of years playing in Croatia before coming to the NBA. But then there's always that money issue, and why would someone stay [in Europe] for $10,000 if somebody's offering me $2 million? But they're not looking at their careers. If they played there [in Croatia] for a couple of years and really achieved something in basketball, then they could earn millions more. But at a young age $2 million sounds way more than $10,000. That's what is happening to [Darko] Milicic in Detroit. Players like him sit on the bench for two or three or four years and they rarely get playing time, especially if they're going to a team that is going to the playoffs. Their career goes by, they don't achieve anything and then they say, 'Yeah, I was with Detroit when they won the championship.' And you look at the stats and they averaged two minutes a game."

On whether basketball was better in the 1980s:

"There were good teams back then. It was the same thing in Europe. When we played our then-Yugoslavian national championship and the European Cup, there were a lot of good teams. But now I don't think there's a good team in Croatia. People don't want to go and see those games because there's basically nothing to see."That's why I understand sometimes when the fans are not interested in coming here to see the [NBA] games, because there's nothing to see. I'm glad that we actually have an exciting team this year [in Milwaukee] with a lot of different looks that we can put on the floor and actually do something to excite the crowd, because I wouldn't buy a ticket to go and see a game where nothing is happening.''

On the teams he would pay to see:

"I would go to see teams like San Antonio, Detroit, Dallas, Miami. I'm very picky."

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Darn, I was looking forward to him saying he'd pay to see our Rockets playing.