In the 1992 Olympics, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen made it a point to suffocate Croatia’s Toni Kukoc. The intention to humiliate a young Kukoc, who was being considered as a potential player for the Chicago Bulls, could be ascribed to the front office’s indifference to Jordan and Pippen’s pay demands. MJ and Pippen were already disgruntled with their pay, and instead of compensating them for their impact on the team, the Bulls offered Kukoc a massive $15,300,000 deal with the remainder of the salary cap. As a result, the Bulls duo wanted to make a statement by locking out Kukoc. However, the Croatian star recently revealed that he wasn’t nervous about MJ and Pippen before the game, especially because of the birth of his newborn child.
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Jordan didn’t believe that Kukoc would be able to survive the demanding environment of the NBA, while Pippen was hurt and upset about the European player’s salary. Despite the Bulls organization sending MJ tapes of the Croatian player, the Bulls superstar refused to watch any of them. He even told his agent David Falk to demand a trade in case the Bulls signed Kukoc.
Jordan signed a eight-year, $25,700,000 deal with the Bulls in 1988, which promised him $2,500,000 in the 1990-91 season. Therefore, it’s quite obvious why he wanted to veto Kukoc’s trade, considering MJ’s influence had a significant impact on the league’s revenue by then.
Tony Kukoc wasn’t nervous against Michael Jordan and the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics
Speaking about his performance in the 1992 Olympics against the USA team, Kukoc admitted that he didn’t have a great game. But he claimed that his performance wasn’t affected by nerves. Kukoc pointed out that during the Olympics run, he was expecting his son in a day or two. So that was the predominant thought in his mind.
Besides, Croatia’s road to the finals was the most important thing for his team. And the game against USA wasn’t necessarily the end of that road. In other words, for Kukoc and the Croatian team, beating Team USA wasn’t more important than beating others to reach the finals. This tweet from Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson quotes the Bulls star’s comment on the issue:
“No, I don’t think I was nervous[before the game against USA]. It was the first game and I actually didn’t know what to expect. I knew that I was drafted by the Bulls; I knew that if I decided to go to the NBA, these are going be my teammates…when I played that game – which to me, wasn’t the most important thing at the time; my son was getting born in a day or two. To ask if it was just a game in a group that we had to face, it wasn’t as important as us beating other teams in order to get to the finals. So yes, I had a horrible game…”
Both teams ended up reaching the Final and this time, Kukoc proved why he was being sought after by the Bulls. He had a great game against Team USA despite his team eventually losing out to the Dream Team. Eventually, the Bulls did sign Kukoc for a massive six-year $24,000,000 contract in 1994 after MJ and Pippen’s protests had postponed the deal. At that time, Kukoc’s salary was the highest in the history of the Bulls franchise.
Kukoc calls Pippen the greatest teammate and Jordan the GOAT and God of basketball
Kukoc signed with the Bulls in the 1993-94 season and later on, became one of the most crucial factors in their three-peat from 1996 to 1998. Despite the drama before being acquired by the Bulls, Kukoc didn’t detest MJ or Pippen. Instead, he called them the best defensive and offensive players in the league.
Kukoc also chose MJ as his basketball GOAT. In a video from NBA Europe, the Croatian was seen trying to describe his teammates in a word or two. He called Scottie Pippen the “greatest teammate”, Dennis Rodman, the “greatest rebounder”, Steve Kerr, the “greatest shooter”, and Michael Jordan, the “GOAT, basketball God.”
