After retiring, golf became the next sport that fascinated Tony Kukoc.
And his athletic talent is still vividly displayed in this new sports arena. In 2011, two years after just getting involved in golf, Kukoc won the Croatian National Amateur Golf Championship.
Life isn't absolutely fair, especially when you see that "born winners" like Kukoc really exist.
At the age of 20, Kukoc won the silver medal at the Seoul Olympic Games with the former Yugoslavia; in the three years from 89 to 91, Kukoc won two European Championships and one World Championship; at the age of less than 25, he led the team to win three Champions League titles and a historic three consecutive MVP; even on the other side of the ocean, he still became a member of the greatest dynasty in the history of the NBA, taking three championship trophies into his arms and becoming part of history.
He is like a ranger, from the heart, but he can always save the team from water and fire at key moments, and then he will brush his clothes and hide his merits and fame.
Since then, only the legend of Tony Kukoc has been left in the basketball world.
Yugoslavia was the land of basketball, and in the basketball world of the time, there was a saying that "the americans invented it, the yugoslavs perfected it." ）」”
Ante, the father, who used to play as a goalkeeper for a local football club, inherited Tony Jr.'s tall stature and outstanding athletic talent. However, Kukoc's sports journey began with table tennis, and the mother was happy to let her son train for table tennis simply because the table tennis club was closer to home. Soon after, Kukoc won the table tennis championship in the regional junior category.
However, perhaps influenced by his father, Little Tony gradually revealed a great passion for football. Like every kid who grew up in Europe's frenetic football scene, Kukoc dreamed of one day playing for his hometown club Hajduk and, under the guidance of his father, joined the club's youth academy as a position on the left.
With a height of more than 1.9 meters and an overly thin body, Kukoc is gradually drifting away from his football dreams. And a wonderful fate between him and basketball began to come from this moment.
In 1983, igor, a scout who specializes in tapping young potential stocks, was fascinated by the tall but flexible boy in front of him between a group of running teenagers on the beach. But to his greater surprise, after communicating with Kukoc, Igor learned that the big man had never touched basketball.
"I sent him an invitation, and he reluctantly agreed to go to basketball training, but without delaying football training." Igor talked about the scene and laughed and said, "But luckily, basketball laughed to the end."
The "Golden Generation" is usually the highest award used in the world of sports to describe a group of outstanding players.
A group of young talents in the former Yugoslavia can bear the resounding name of the Golden Generation. And Kukoc, of course, became one of them. During the youth team, Kukoc and his teammates were invincible in the U16 and U18 levels, winning two European championships in succession, and also won the U19 World Youth Championship in Italy in 1987.
The following year's Seoul Olympic Games, the 20-year-old Kukoc was shortlisted for the list, and also in the list was the elder Kukoc four-year-old, as early as four years ago in Los Angeles has been a great show of the Dratzen Petrovich, and almost the same age Pasperry, Divac, Radega, also in the future international basketball, left their own pen.
In a focus battle in the group stage, Yugoslavia faced the Soviet union team led by Sabonis, Matthew Leonis and other famous generals, with 25 points by Petrovich and 20 points and 11 rebounds by Pasperry. Kukoc also played the best performance of the Olympic Games in this game, contributing a quasi-double double of 13 points and 9 rebounds, as well as a steal and a block.
Although in the final, when the two teams met again, Yugoslavia unfortunately lost and was relegated to the second place. But the members of the golden generation of Yugoslavia still proved their strength on the world stage with their outstanding performance.
Kukoc's fate also changed.
After returning to the club, Kukoc truly transformed on the road to becoming a great basketball player. Between 1989 and 1991, Kukoc led Jugoplastika to a three-time Champions League title, and he himself won the Champions League final four three times in 1990, 1991 and 1993.
Such a performance naturally attracted the attention of scouts on the other side of the ocean. In 1990, Kukoc was selected in the second round with the 29th overall pick. The team that chose him was the Chicago Bulls who were about to dominate the NBA throughout the '90s under the leadership of Jordan and Pippen.
The Bulls' then-general manager Jerry Klaus had high hopes for the young man, who was nearly seven feet tall but was good at shooting and had a brilliant pass. However, due to the limited salary space of the team at that time, Kukoc could not join the team at the first time, but the Bulls continued to make positive efforts for Kukoc's arrival.
But this annoyed the two big men in the team.
Until he entered the All-Star team in 1991, Pippen's salary was only $770,000 a year. Pippen, who has been complaining about this for a long time, has been negotiating with the team, hoping to seek a higher salary contract. But Klaus, bent on saving space for Kukoc's arrival, did not grant his request.
The team manager's actions did not satisfy the boss Jordan. "I know he looks good, but it's all playing against college players and he has no idea what the NBA is all about." Jordan said.
In the face of Klaus's request to call kukoc, Jordan refused without even thinking about it. "I don't want to speak Yugoslav." Jordan said sarcastically.
Jordan and Pippen's dissatisfaction with the miserly general manager naturally all transferred to the innocent Kukoc. But before he landed on the American continent, he wanted to find a chance to teach him on the pitch, and the opportunity was really rare.
Until 1992, the Barcelona Olympics. The two decided to give the young Croatian a little color to see.
In the fourth game of the group stage, the two teams, which had also been undefeated before, met in a narrow way. But the gorgeous Dream Team is obviously stronger. In the end, the United States beat Croatia by 33 points, and under the rotation of Jordan and Pippen, Kukoc did not hit the first sports goal until the end of the first half. In the whole game, 2 of 11 shots, 4 points, 5 assists and 7 turnovers were really bad.
"I guess the team can see that he's not ready for NBA-level competition." Pippen said proudly after the game.
Kukoc, on the other hand, was quite calm. "I understand what kind of rhythm they want me to know about playing in the NBA." In a post-match interview, Kukoc said: "But one game is not enough to be a test, I'm sure I can do better. But this game made me clear that I had to improve the state of the game."
Faced with the provocation of the team leader and his own bad play, Kukoc chose to respond with strength. In the Olympic final 12 days later, Croatia once again faced a powerful dream team. Although the odds of winning were slim, Kukoc played a very different performance from the previous game, scoring 16 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists in the all-around performance, confirming that his ability was not false.
On January 21, 1994, the Bulls played at home against the Pacers, with only 5 seconds left.
The old and spicy Reggie Miller is like a astute cheetah, observing every move on the field at the bottom line. Mitchell was firmly prepared for cover, and Miller waited for the opportunity to break free of Steve Cole's entanglement, bypass the copper wall set by Mitchell, catch the ball and turn around, and the ball quickly entered the net.
The score came to 95-93 and the game was fixed at 0.8 seconds.
The dramatic moment has arrived. Miller, who had completed the "quasi-kill", put away his raised arms, ran to the center of the venue, faced the audience, and bowed deeply. In the face of such a direct provocation, from the players to the fans, there is no courage to make a direct response.
But the more dramatic plot unfolds after just a short pause. Pippen, who threw the ball from the sideline, threw the ball high and passed it to Tony Kukocci, who had played from the middle. The latter turned around and hit the priceless three-pointer in an unconventional shot. The team was also able to hold on to a 16-game winning streak at home.
Just a day later, the Bulls made a visit to Indiana, and the two teams played back-to-back second game. In this game, the Bulls did not make the game so thrilling, and Pippen's 22 points helped the team beat the opponent by 9 points.
After the game, the victorious Pi Second Master, imitating Miller's celebratory action, copied it to the spectators at the Pacers' home stadium.
Such a refreshing counterattack was actually accomplished by the little brother who he disdained two years ago, and the arrangement of fate could not help but make people sigh.
"Kill" is a word that cannot be avoided when people mention Kukoc's career.
In the third game of the playoffs in '94, he scored the Knicks, and even in 2001, he was named one of the Bulls' top 10 great goals in history by the NBA official website. Alongside him, there is jordan's legendary "the shot".
In addition to the wonderfulness of this killer goal itself, this goal is actually the best portrayal of Kukoc's ranger-like dashing life.
With six seconds left in the game, the Chicago Bulls were still two points ahead of the Knicks. But Pippen's hasty outside shot not only did not even touch the basket, but also gave the opponent 5.5 seconds of offensive time. Ewing made a stretched hook, and with just 1.8 seconds left in the game, the two teams were back on the same running line again.
Phil Jackson, the "Zen master" who witnessed the scene just now, decided to give the power of the last shot to Kukoc, and this choice made Pippen, who led the team alone after Jordan retired, feel humiliated. After a heated argument with the manager, he refused to appear in the final moments of the game.
Kukoc, on the other hand, was still as usual, and he once again used that signature back turn to smoothly deliver the ball into the basket. Then, receiving the shouts of teammates and spectators, the mountain roared like a tsunami.
Not humble. Provocative or sarcastic, Kukoc has always maintained this posture.
Jordan returned, Rodman joined, and the Bulls team finally went to finish the body. They won another triple crown and achieved a dominance record of 72 wins and 10 losses. Kukoc is in the middle of it, and it doesn't matter if the light is dim, it doesn't matter whether it starts or comes off the bench. He seems to be a cold force in this fiery bull team, which wonderfully maintains the internal balance of this dynasty division.
After that, Kukoc traveled to Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Milwaukee, going round and round to the end of his career. 'There was also a team that was interested in me, but this time, I didn't want to play too far from home.
On September 12, 2006, Tony Kukoc ended his glorious 23-year career as a player. Leave countless champions, leave a string of killer balls that will not be forgotten by history.
But all this, on Kukoc,seems to have left no trace. He still seemed to be like the teenager who was keen on various sports, simply enjoying such simple pleasures. As Kukoc said in a post-retirement interview.
"Life is perfect. ）」