Kukoc and the Bulls

ferrari77 · Apr 30, 2020

One of my favourite Bulls players from the Jordan return years(along with Ron Harper). Zach Lowe always shows love to the players from the Balkans and this one is great because I haven't seen much written about Kukoc in years.

A few days after the Bulls won their sixth championship, Phil Jackson organized a dinner for players, coaches, and their wives at a Chicago restaurant. Midway through, he gathered the players into a private area. They sat in a circle, drinks and cigars in hand. Each made one toast.

"It was so special," Steve Kerr told ESPN. "That was the last moment we were ever all together."

Kerr knew his subject right away.

"I said a toast to Toni [Kukoc]," Kerr said. "Nobody had to go through what he did -- the pressure from Michael [Jordan] and Scottie [Pippen] to earn his keep. Michael and Scottie are all over him about being Jerry [Krause]'s guy. And Toni just [wanted] to play. And so I just said a toast to Toni, because I thought he was such a great player. I wanted him to know how much he meant to our team."

MORE: Replay "The Last Dance" Episodes 1 to 4

Kukoc doesn't remember Kerr's toast, though others do. To a surprising degree, he has little interest in rehashing Chicago's glory years. "I lived it," Kukoc said. Living amid the drama of the "Last Dance" season -- inside the storm -- almost worked to insulate Kukoc from it. The Bulls were aging, injured, aware the gap between them and their fiercest challengers was perhaps the slimmest it had ever been. Kukoc battled plantar fasciitis.

He felt the tension between Krause and the players, of the looming breakup. He didn't have the bandwidth to devote emotional energy to it.

"Phil was good at keeping us in a bubble," Kukoc said. "We focused on what was in front of us. By watching ['The Last Dance'], I am going to find out things I had no idea happened."

Even as a dominant teenager on probably the greatest non-American national team ever, Kukoc loved the group dynamic of sports. He experienced the powerful brew of friendship and chemistry with Dino Radja, Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac, and other stars in the former Yugoslavia. He sought that vibe in the NBA. Reliving the divide between Krause and the players hurts him now.

"I wish Jerry were here to say his part of the story," Kukoc said. "It's easy to like Michael and Scottie and Dennis and Phil, and I like them all. I love them. Scottie was the ultimate team player. Michael will always, to me, be the best player ever. He changed the game. He made it global. Every player today should tip their hat to him. But you have to hear the other side. Jerry built the six-time champions. You have to give him credit."

Krause lusted after Kukoc, and selected him in the second round in 1990. Kukoc did not sign with the Bulls until 1993, fearing he would waste prime years on the bench. He was also making more money in Europe. "I was indecisive if I should come," Kukoc said.

Krause enticed him with visions of running the break alongside Jordan and Pippen, but also spoke of the value in playing with grinders and leaders -- John Paxson and Bill Cartwright -- under "this great coach we have" in Jackson, Kukoc said.

"It was a courtship," said Clarence Gaines Jr., a longtime Bulls scout who traveled abroad with Krause to watch Kukoc. "Jerry could be charming when he needed to be."

Jordan and Pippen heard Krause's adulation of Kukoc. They knew Kukoc stood to make more money than Pippen.

Still in Europe, Kukoc was unaware of any long-distance resentment from Jordan and Pippen. He had no idea they were arguing over who would guard him when the Dream Team faced Croatia during group play in the 1992 Olympics. Jordan and Pippen devoured Kukoc, holding him to four points on 2-of-11 shooting.

"I wanted to shut him down and embarrass him," Pippen told reporters after the game. "I can't put Krause out on the court."

At the time, Kukoc chalked it up to a superteam targeting an opposing star. "We were playing the Dream Team," he said. "To me, the best and only Dream Team." Half his mind was back in Croatia, where his wife was about to go into labor. (Kukoc played much better in the gold-medal rematch: 16 points and 9 assists.)

Kukoc said he only learned the backstory two decades later, when he sat for an interview in "The Dream Team" documentary. "They said, 'Did you know they were fighting over who was going to stop you?'" Kukoc said last week. "No. Thanks for sharing that with me 20 years later." He added with a laugh: "At least I can say no player got as much attention from the Dream Team as I did."

Kukoc faced lingering bitterness when he joined the Bulls. Jordan and Pippen referred to him as "Jerry's guy," according to Kukoc and teammates. Pippen poked at his defense, saying, "You can't guard a chair," according to Kukoc. (Pippen said he does not remember using this phrasing, but teammates recall much general criticism of Kukoc's defense.)

"They always gave him a hard time," said Jud Buechler, who played in Chicago from 1994 to 1998.

"The [Krause] thing made it very difficult for him at first," said Jim Cleamons, a longtime Jackson lieutenant. "It was unfair to Toni, honestly."

Kukoc recognized any ill feelings were about Krause -- not him. He was strong enough to play through it.

"Toni was just himself," Cleamons said, "and that was his salvation."

He didn't mind the stray comments. Cutting humor was part of team culture. "He understood it was almost a hazing process," Cleamons said.

As a rookie, Kukoc carried bags and picked up food for veterans.

"I understood I would have to earn respect," Kukoc said. "I was coming to the best team in the world. You have to put aside all your accolades and pride. It doesn't matter if you were good in Europe. I was OK with that."

To say Kukoc was good in Europe is a massive understatement. He won essentially every team competition and individual award possible multiple times. He was a 6-foot-10 point forward with every pass in his bag, and the size to shoot over small players inside and outside. He earned the nickname "The Waiter" because of how easily he served up assists.

"He was Magic Johnson in Europe," said George Karl, who coached against Kukoc's teams during his time at Real Madrid.
Kukoc knew Jordan, Pippen, and Jackson were right about his defense: He had to improve, and get much stronger to guard power forwards -- something he had never done -- who outweighed him by 30 or 40 pounds. "I sometimes looked foolish guarding those guys," Kukoc said. "Back then, they could almost pick me up and move me backward." Sliding Kukoc down the positional spectrum would open the floor, and give Chicago a modern, ultra-switchable look on defense. It was on Kukoc to make it workable.

The veterans prodded Kukoc about his diet. Kerr, Buechler, and Cartwright recalled Kukoc ordering a glass of wine as part of pregame meals during their early preseasons together. "We were like, 'Holy smokes, no wonder you're not in great shape,'" Cartwright said. "He had to learn how to be an NBA player."

(Kukoc insisted these stories are exaggerated. Wine is a through line, though. Billy King, who as Sixers GM acquired Kukoc from Chicago, said Kukoc taught him to stick to late-1990s vintages from Italy. Zaza Pachulia, who was 20 when he played one season in Milwaukee with Kukoc and counts him as a mentor, said the two went out to dinner often -- and Kukoc always insisted on paying for wine. Pachulia thought it was because he was underage. He finally asked Kukoc. "It was because he only ordered expensive wine, and I was on a rookie contract," Pachulia said.)

Kukoc compartmentalized the vitriol from Jordan, Pippen, and Jackson into two categories: Krause-related snark, and constructive criticism from competitors who wanted to win. He had faith that when Jordan and Pippen realized how good he was -- that he could help them win, that maybe they needed him to win -- the first would fade, leaving only basketball-related barbs. He could take that.

"Most players today would have been in their feelings," said Dickey Simpkins, a Bulls reserve. "Toni took it. He knew he had work to do."

Kukoc was right to bet on his talent. "Once Michael and Scottie figured out this guy was really freaking good, they embraced him," said Cartwright, who played with Kukoc and Pippen in 1993-94 and rejoined the Bulls in 1996 as an assistant coach.
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More at the link
https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=29072197&type=Story&imagesPrint=off

Jontro · Apr 30, 2020

but can he even dance?

daywalker02 · Apr 30, 2020

Jontro said: ↑

but can he even dance?
Click to expand...

'Krause lusted after Kukoc'.

They sure danced.

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