Toni Kukoc Quotes

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Toni Kukoc

Profession : Athlete

Birth : September 18, 1968

Now if you ask me about coming from Europe, I would suggest to any young player interested in the NBA to not spend two or three years in Europe searching for money. Just give it a shot. You can always go back.

Toni Kukoc

Maybe NBA teams won't want me and maybe I'll play in Europe the last one or two seasons.

Toni Kukoc

Like everybody coming from Europe, I didn't believe it at first, but you really need time to adjust. I thought it was going to be like going from Croatia to Italy. But you really need the time just to understand things here.

Toni Kukoc

I think it's very important for every player after a long season, whether it's good or bad, to get total rest. Not just physically and mentally from basketball and the pressure on the court, but the pressures outside, too. Then, when you come back, everything's exciting again.

Toni Kukoc

I'm excited to try the NBA. But, for sure, I need time on the court to get used to this style.

Toni Kukoc

In Italy, my wife and I always said we feel like strangers because there's maybe only a couple other people from other parts of the world. Here in Chicago, there's millions of people from Poland, thousands from Japan, hundreds from Croatia. We like it here.

Toni Kukoc

I feel as long as I'm playing productive minutes, I'll play. But if I'm sitting on the bench and not doing anything, then I'll retire.

Toni Kukoc

It's very tough to build a championship team. It takes time and good players, and you have to get lucky as well.

Toni Kukoc

I have an easy way to explain the war. It's a Croatian defending his country and a Serb attacking a Croatian country. With anyone who has a problem with understanding what's going on, that is the easiest way to understand it.

Toni Kukoc

I'm not a political man. I'm a basketball player. So that's what I have to do first. But second, I will try to help my country because I am a Croatian.

Toni Kukoc

Everything about me is Croatian.

Toni Kukoc

I mean, if you're going to get traded, you're always looking for a good team to play with.

Toni Kukoc

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.

Toni Kukoc

I understood I would have to earn respect. 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.

Toni Kukoc

I love Scottie. The guy that helped me the most those first two years was Scottie. He is so easy to play with.

Toni Kukoc

Everyone has an ego. Even someone that doesn't play one minute has an ego.

Toni Kukoc

If people say my numbers aren't enough for the Hall of Fame, I'm fine with that.

Toni Kukoc

Obviously, when you come onto a team that's playing in the Finals and the standards are so high that nothing but winning a championship is success, coming in new to that kind of environment, of course you're going to put pressure on yourself.

Toni Kukoc

My family, I can say, is pretty Americanized. My son has lived pretty much all his life in Chicago, my daughter was born in Chicago, we all like Chicago.

Toni Kukoc