The Croatian Sensation

I knew it was coming. Episode 5 of The Last Dance on ESPN featured quite a bit of Toni Kukoc, mostly while he was playing in international basketball competitions. He was the star of the 1992 Olympic Silver Medalist Croatia National Team, but it's been pretty well-documented that Jordan and Pippen chose to shut him down defensively to send a message to their GM, Jerry Krause, who had visions of Kukoc one day playing alongside of, and perhaps eventually replacing, the two.

For me, it's always been hard to not feel bad for Kukoc. By all measures, he was a good dude, and it wasn't his fault Krause wanted him. He was a very good player. This was before much of an influx of international talent into the NBA, so for years he was a mysterious draft pick who had never made it stateside.

The documentary showed that he had chosen to stay overseas because of the political turmoil in his home. He was also making more money than he would as an NBA rookie.

He also had no real way of knowing that Jordan and Pippen were annoyed by management's view of him. That wasn't his fault. He didn't ask for it.

Eventually, he did make it to the U.S. after Jordan retired the first time, and was a critical part of the second Bulls 3-peat. I hope future episodes show that instead of just him getting dunked on in the Olympics.

Being that I collected basketball mostly while MJ was retired, I ended up with a few Kukoc cards over the years. It felt like he has a lot of RCs in '93-94.

I hope the remaining episodes help shed some light on his time as an NBA player. He was a good one, albeit under appreciated.