Toni Kukoc
My uncle was almost hit by a sniper while dropping his son at basketball practice.
I've always said that besides the NBA, the Yugoslavian league and a Russian league were the best basketball leagues in the world.
The ultimate sports figure. The ultimate competitor. Great person. I consider him my friend. I wouldn't be that good if I was Michael Jordan.
I always thought about the NBA.
I don't want to say which guard it was with the Bulls, but I would take the ball and he would come to me and say, 'You are taking my bread.' I didn't know the slang.
I would watch San Antonio play and see plays I recognized from the Russian team, the Yugoslavian team.
I had to change my game completely. I was what Scottie was. What he was doing here I was doing in Europe.
I was one of the main guys on my team and you always want to check people that you're bringing in. Are they tough enough physically and mentally? Can they respond when you need them to respond?
There were games I would score five and games I would score 30, and sometimes the five points were way more important than the 30.
Chicago is one of the greatest places when it comes to sports. It kind of reminds me of my hometown in Split. It doesn't matter how bad the soccer team is, everybody worships the soccer, the players and the games.
I kind of expect that the people wouldn't know me. I know I'm tall and I cannot escape that.
I shot millions and millions of shots, just wanted the ball and felt good every time I released the ball, especially in those last seconds of big games.
I always felt comfortable looking at the court.
It's a saying if coach likes and sees good stuff in you and wants you to play he'll pick on you, he'll make you work and do things right. Once he stops talking to you, you know you're done.
I thought those three years when we won championships, I really was good enough to play in the All-Star game. I felt I deserved to be in the top whatever that would be, the top 20-some players in the league. Really felt that comfortable and confident on the basketball court.
I know Steve Kerr well and his basketball IQ is really high. He knows everything about basketball.
It feels great to have the chance to play with the Chicago Bulls.
Maybe two or three years will be enough for me to grow into a good NBA player.
I try to imagine what it will be like to play for the Bulls. I don't think I will be able to feel it before I step on the court at Chicago Stadium.
I'm a sportsman, not a political man.
You never know when people with sick minds can destroy your life. It doesn't matter how well life is going on for you that moment. If that can't happen in the middle of New York City, it can happen anywhere else. If the terrorists can hit the Pentagon or the White House I don't see where it's safe.
I worry for the future of the world. For my children.
Scottie was just a different character than Michael. He was more the soft side. Every once in a while he would explode, but he would help me. Michael on the other end was almost always aggressive.
My generation, with Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, that was the first wave of European players that kind of opened the door for the world.
I actually played a lot of other sports - table tennis and soccer for a long time.
It was almost an accident that I got into basketball at all but fortunately it wasn't too late and I was able to be a part of a great generation for the sport.
When I first started playing, we practiced nine hours a day. Five and a half to six hours of those were working on the fundamentals.
Obviously the game is more enjoyable when the ball is shared and everybody looks for each other on both ends of the floor.
I am not a prima donna. It's just that I feel cold on the bench.
I have to go to the NBA and try.
Only Vlade Divac go first year he play. The rest of the guys from Europe sit on the bench.
I am a basketball player. For me to sit on the bench at 21, 22, not what I wanted.
I don't think the people in Chicago really knew exactly who I was in the seven years I was there.
I would say it was my fault, my choice to not allow people to know who I was. Places I went, people I knew, they knew the way Toni Kukoc was as a person and they all treated me great. Everyone else who just read the newspapers and tried to learn about me, I guess I was not that good of a guy.
Money-wise, I was probably the best player in Europe. It was safe where I was in Italy. But I wanted to play in the NBA to see if I could.
I never was anybody's guy. I always was myself.
War very strange thing. Not easy, not easy for sure to leave family, friends, even car, house, everything.
For nine years, I was playing at more or less the same weight and I'm a little bit slower than I used to be. But I'm glad I have a couple of pounds more because I think it will help me in games for sure.
Coming here, I never thought about being like what I was supposed to be in Europe, the No. 1 guy and building the whole team around you. Coming here, I was relaxed about that because I knew there was going to be Michael, Scottie, Horace and I could learn from them.
Sometimes in my mind I have a picture of something happening, and because the foot is not right it is harder to happen. I see the ball and I can see myself intercepting it or rebounding or doing this stuff, and it's just not there. There's not the movement or explosiveness.
I'm disappointed anytime I don't play well.
Those two months I didn't play didn't help me. But injuries are a part of basketball.
When I was drafted by Chicago, I said, 'Wow, it would be nice to play with those guys.' I knew I'd have an automatic chance to win a championship.
It was always a dream to come to the NBA.
Someone can tell you something a million times, but if you don't know what they're talking about, it's hard to adjust and even more difficult to become a believer.
It's easy. You just shoot the ball and then hope it's going to go in.
Everybody knows the NBA is the top of basketball in the world. The game here is more hard, more physical, faster than in Europe.
My biggest reason for coming is to prove to myself that I can play in the NBA.
War is not game. If you lose, you can be mad or sad two or three days. War makes you sad every day, every minute.
Michael may be the biggest player in the N.B.A., but he's not the N.B.A.