When I watch the NBA of the 80's, 90's and early 2000's I always get the urge to go play right away. When I look at today's NBA, it..... makes me want to cry, and makes me feel sad and ashamed of the league. It used to be a great league, full of amazing players and wonderful basketball that was pleasing to the eye, warmed the heart and encouraged you to pick up the ball and go play. He was a huge inspiration. Today, I'm rather discouraged. Luckily, we have these amazing RU-vid videos to remind us of old honest basketball. Thanks to BTM, I'm going to go play basketball. ;)
@Jon Bishoff He was a pretty solid player. Not many highlights because he was playing alongside MJ and Pippen, but he brought the intangibles that the team needed. People hated Krause, but scouting Kukoc was a very solid move.
It´s funny to read that Kukoc was and underrated player. This could be so for american fans, but for european fans of basket, that is a joke. European fans know and admire Toni Kukoc since he was almost a teenager, when he led Jugoplastika - Pop 84 to three consecutive European titles. Kukoc was a player like we have never seen in Europe. With his heigth, very thin, an all around player, playing as guard or shooting guard, the boy had all abilities, to pass, to penetrate, to shoot, and was so creative and witty, as elegant . When he went to NBA, he gained weight and had to take a new roll, but still was always admired and recognized as one of the best european players ever, and the favorite for many fans. For me and no few, the GOAT of european and FIBA basketball, and with a good NBA carreer too
@@zachhk6108 Still to soon for Doncic to gain this "title". In FIBA basket will be difficult for him in his Eslovenia team not only to win more titles but even to qualify for some trophies . Also in NBA he probably need to move to a better team to be decisive and compete for the Championship. Let's see...
@@santiagosantiago687 He has already won Eurobasket with a small country as Slovenia and has been fourth in the latest Olympics. Great achievements already, he doesn't need more (he had Dragic as a teammate, but not another star). On the other hand great Kukoc had Radja, Savic etc in Jugoplastika and even better teammates on Yugoslavia national team. Of course he seems more talented now than Kukoc (but basketball has changed a lot), but we have to wait mainly to what he is going to achieve on NBA. As a Greek I have to say, let's wait to see what Giannis will achieve with our national team, so maybe he will become the GOAT (even if he will never play in EuroLeague).
I'm not quite sure what the main cause is for the American bias against the very best European ballers, and I'm not going to delve into what those causes might be and even if I did delve into them, I suspect I'd find one or more of the causes to be LESS THAN honorable, respectable, or even reasonable. However, it should be noted that this bias has been significantly reduced over the last 3 decades by great performances and a slow but sustained increase in Euro talent influx into the NBA (from the 1990's with only a very few like Kukoc making a mark on the NBA, and all the way to today's 2020's w/ lots of Euro stars on NBA starting 5s (e.g., Luka Dončić) getting mad respect). Regardless, Americans are still choosing to keep this dumb bias on life support for unexplained reasons. IMHO, I truly believe that, if fate had spared that wonderful pure shooter Dražen Petrović and graced him with a long life and good health, and he was able to play a long, full NBA career, I think that Americans would have eventually seen the error of their ways and taken this dumb bias off life support by the time Petrović would have had his retirement ceremony.
Kukoc was such an important part of the 2nd 3peat Bulls, and if MJ didn’t come back, Kukoc would’ve developed into an all-star, Toni was a defensive nightmare for the other team day in day out, he was a 6’10” sharp shooting creative guard. I remember how Phil Jackson put Kukoc against Shaq to draw Shaq out to the perimeter to open up the lanes, and when Shaq didn’t come out, Kukoc would pop those 3s.
Kukoc crossing Mike at the last scene was like dude this guy can still ball at an NBA level and still alot of these fans cant see how good Kukoc was for a European Basketball level
The fact that he still kept his composure and played well when he faced off against the greatest basketball team ever assembled (and got harassed by two of the best defensived players in history) says a lot of about Toni. I really enjoyed watching Kukoc play back in the days, thanks for making a video of him. I hope you can make more videos about European players as they're often undermined or underestimated.
Cheers from Athens my friend. What a team you did have back those days. And the individual players, true legends of basketball. Also Cibona and Jugoplastika, at club level. (No mentions about unified Yugoslavia, otherwise we might be disoriented.)
@@theredbaron7302 I remember Tony in his glory days in the Croatian national team destroying all competition, serboslavia does not exist, check the world map
@@powderskier5547 Well there was a time you know where Tony, Vlade and Drazen where playing together, there are actually videos to prove it, so do yourself a favour and accept facts.
Toni frustrated me at times. He was my favorite player but he was too unselfish. Had he had a more aggressive mentality, he could have been known as one of the best players in the league. Saw him go 13 of 13 from 3 in Europe before he went to the bulls. He was great!!!
Wow I was really excited to see this game in your video as I was at the game. It was a gift for my 21st birthday and a dream come true to see MJ live. I'm from Scotland so it was a big deal to finally see him. The Wizards won this game and Jordan's performance was much more memorable than Toni's. He scored 23 points and unfortunately for me sat out most of the 4th quarter as the Wiz had a big lead so they opted to rest Mike. I remember the crowd went nuts everytime Michael scored and in my opinion he was easily the best player on the court even at 38. I often think back to this night and how grateful Iwas to see the GOAT in action.
IF JORDAN DIDNT GET THAT FREAK INJURY THAT YEAR: THEY WERE 3RD SEED EAST GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS AS INE IF THE HOTTEST TEAMS AND BEAT THE LAKERS WHO WERE CHAMPS AND JORDAN WAS 25 PER WITH GREAT DEFENSE AND IN RANGE OF ANOTHER MVP!!! OH!!!!!.... TO THINK ABOUT IT NOW..... CASUAL NBA FANS SAY IT WAS A WASTED WIZARDS TIME - BUT I PAID ATTENTION CLOSELY ALL SEASON: IT WAS ANYTHING BUT!!! BUT OVERALL: PEOPLE WERE JUST EXCITED TO SEE MIKE AGAIN...IT WAS LIKE A FRIEND CAME BACK ALIVE JUST TO SAY HELLO AND GOODBYE...
@@christafarism kukoc sometimes put rodman to the bench when rodman had to play against certain centers that drove rodman nuts . Like mutombo or george murison the real tall guys with range like zydrunas.
@@antwan1357 right right? He was the archetypal big man of today. He was the first 6 foot 11 dude who could dribble shoot pass... He was giannis before giannis. He does not get enough credit for how good he was. Long live kukoc
Just like the player himself, the great Joe Dumars. Pistons defense, Dumars and the Bad Boys system, that was a loaded team and stack of instruments to work with for Isiah, without mentioning an all time great coach in Chuck Daly behind all of it.
5:28 PIPPEN SIGNATURE FAST BREAK (LATER USED BY ALLEN IVERSON ON ALLSTAR GAME) ...I MISS PIP SO MUCH HE IS 2X MORE COMPLETE PLAYER THAN JORDAN EVER WAS.
Toni Kukoc was a great player and had the potential to be a 20 point per game player. He could really do it all , just imagine if he was ever a first scoring option
I think Philly messed up big time when they traded Kukoc, they definitely should have kept him. The 76ers had very good defenses in the early/mid 2000s but had mediocre offenses to support AI. Kudos Kukoc would have given Philly an excellent 1-2 punch with AI. I think that's because Larry Brown was too defensive minded to a detriment. He should have looked more closely at how great the Bulls we're defensively but still had heavy offensive firepower.
Well fat short Jerry Kraus is the reason why and the owner of the bulls regrets listening to him. Because the bulls haven't been in title contention for 23 years.
thanks for featuring Toni kukoc my favorite lefty player of all time very underrated player playing along side Legend Air Jordan . if he playing now for sure he be ave double double or maybe triple double a team Player
U can make the case that kukoc saved mj in 98. Bulls barely beat Indiana in 7 . Kukoc was on fire scoring like 20 I think in the 3rd qtr. If not. They probably lose and mj walks away w 5 not 6.
Toni was one of the most talented offensive players ever, and I had pleasure of watching him play and knowing him since he is from my home town. Great handling, passing, shooting, good post game. I can only imagine if at the time he came in league he ended up in some other team where he could have more chances to show his talent. In today's league he would be unguardable
I think that looking back his decision to stay with the bulls was not his best choice, bulls was holding him back in favor of MJ’s Nike money! Bad choice with his talent to sign a contract more than a year with Bulls. He was a #1 guy not #2or 3.
In Europe Tony was playing another position and he was unstoppable. He carried each of his teams to championship finals, this is of course when his coach knew how to exploit his talent. Unfortunately coming to the Bulls was a bad choice for him and for the NBA, with a different team, coach and position, we would have seen some amazing staff from him. His basketball IQ was far superior to anyone played the game at that time, even the great MJ was afraid of him as it seems. They never let him show what he could do.
Hey Sean, can you please do a breakdown of the best NBA VCR videos that came out during the 90's? Videos like 'Michael Jordan's Playground', 'NBA Jam Session', and 'NBA Hardwood Hero's'. I had almost all of these as a kid. It fits your theme and I'm sure a good portion of your subscribers had those tapes. Thanks for all your hard work. Love from Australia. Peace to you and your family.
What happened next to Jordan's teammates after the last dance shows how great of a player, leader and teammate he was. His teammates performance and stats fell off slowly. This shows how huge his impact brings to his teammates game. They became great also because of his mentorship and Jordan achieved so much greatness in return because of his teammates willingness to do their stuffs too. Love him or hate him he's the Greatest Player ever for me. And I'm born in 1999. I just watch his games, full games and highlights through replays. His elevation, his release, his shooting, his defense, his huge hands, his mentality is unorthodox. For me, his passing is underrated. Everybody is sleeping about his great passing because he was a scorer, a volume shooter with a high efficiency. Those were the times that there is no easy shot. Today, it's easier to get an assist. You just throw the ball to a shooter and bang, easy assist. Sad that I wasn't born yet in his reigns. 🥺
@@raindotorg To be fair, a 31/32 year old basketball player's body is not as well maintained compared to it's modern day counterpart. Medicine, training, as well as overall knowledge in sports aren't equally as advance. Take for example how it's relatively easier to bounce back from what used to be career ending injuries like MCL, ACL tears, etc. So a 31/32 year old then would probably be comparable to a 34/35 year old now.
@@gunduss He was basically Durant before Durant. If he played in this era, he would've averaged something like Luka. And I can tell you one thing: he's the most naturally gifted player from the region of former Yugoslavia I ever watched.
Final score: Wizards 103 Hawks 76 Kukoc had 19, with 18 in the 1st half. Jordan had 23, with 18 coming in a 6-min spurt where he made 9 shots in a row.
I just subscribed to you channel - grew up in the hey day and best basketball in the late 80's and 90's - todays stuff is good if you like watching YMCA level defense. I was in Greece the summer Toni was coming to the Bulls - there was a lot of hype on how good he was and it turned out to be true.
why is he not in the hall of fame is beyond me?! see how low he was picked, if a player with that resume in europe come to the nba today he would be 1st pick, becasue of Doncic and all the euros before. Today its much easier to be recognised in the nba
9:45 GOT EEMMM!!!! 🤣🤣👍👍 GOT EEMMM! 😭😭😭 Might not have been a cross per say but it was definitely a fake out of this world. Jordan got juked something tremendous. .. .. Yes I get it Jordan anticipated the screen but he also misinterpreted that juke box big facts!
Other interesting fact about that Yugo team and 1992 Olympics: Young Yugoslavian team (Kukoč, Divac, Rađa etc) was regularly beating young USA teams (players from college and so on) so USA was determined not to let that happen in the Olympics and made the Dream Team. Winning the basketball gold was a matter of national pride. BUT, the war of Yugoslavia broke out and that team was done for. Most of young Yugo-players (not all) were from Croatia (plus some other, older ones, in the Olympic team, Dražen Petrović first of them) the USA basketball comitee made a huge pressure on International Olympic board to alove Croatian team to compete since Croatia was a new country that didn't play any qulifiares and Yugoslavian team (what remained of it) was suspended cause of the war. The reasoning for that move from USA was that it was the only international team that could actually put up a fight against the Dream Team. Dream Team won on average with 44 points difference while only Croatia lost both matches and Puerto Rico one with less than 40 points difference and only team that actually took the lead against Dream Team (in the finals 25-23). And Kukoč was one of the best in that team (people still argue even in Croatia if he or Petrović were the better one): It was the only team sport that represented Croatia in that Olympic games (no quilifiers, susspensions cause of war etc...) and it mostly happened cause Dream Team wanted a team that they can play against and not just trash them.
ooooohhhh deng !!! flash back .... Grant on Hawaiian surf shorts at practice , bruh i remember , that was a friday , lol ..... i love PIPPEN so i will never miss anything on tv about the Bulls ...
Love your videos and eloquent smooth delivery. MJ the best ever but I really didn’t like the way him and Piper basically bullied Kokuc . They wernt trying to win the game as much as they were just trying to humiliate him. Krause was like his dad? That’s hard to buy. When you’re used to getting all the glory all the time you just don’t like sharing it.
Toni Kukoc is another player I enjoyed watching with the Bulls. He took that beating in the Olympics, but he took it like a man, came back and played better, and had a good NBA career. He earned Jordan's respect.
Compare for a second Toni’s and Manu’s career! The big difference is that Manu played with not only good players but good human beings too. And coached by great coach Pop ! Phil Jackson admitted that he didn’t treat Kukoc fairly. Not to mention Pippen and Jordan who were not willing to share highlights with a white dude..
Toni...the "patch"Kukoc. Player which can bust the quality of any time he play for. In same time....he never put his own ego in front of a timemades...he allweys play hor others....and take responsability for a crutial moves in any game. Such a great player....for sure, on of the best of all times. It was such a pleasure to watch his games...a lot of them. Thank you Toni. You make basketball....greater/better. All the best from Cr🌞atia 😊👍😊👋
Because” Nike “ shoe money was on MJ and everyone else was silenced. Kukoc should have left the Bulls in second year! They held him back with the contract he shouldn’t have signed.
@@Chevy-hw6lw and he was younger at the end. Jordan thought that he is still superior, but it was not the case anymore :-) MJ is my favourite player, but it was still great to see that there was a time when someone did the same thing to him, what he did to others so many times :-)
@@kalpeti1 oh hell yeah , mj will always be my all time fav. But I also like tk a lot too, I actually liked all the bulls players back then a lot. Good thing is I think mj respects and likes tk a lot. He had to, tk filled and performed his role very well. Kinda like Steve Kerr, even though he punched him in the face they’re still great friends and mj respects the hell out of Steve Kerr.
While people say MJ was the greatest just have look at his team MJ, Pippen, Tony kukoc, Rodman, all terrific players. While Kobe and Shaq Era was a two man team
Kobe & Shaq was a two man team?? Are you serious??? Over the course of 5 seasons where Shaq & Kobe were together (00-04) here’s a list of ALL the good/great/HOF players they had!!!!! •Horace Grant •Gary Payton •Glen Rice •Karl Malone •Derek Fisher •Isiah Rider •Mitch Richmond •Ron Harper •A.C. Green •Rick Fox •Robert Horry They should’ve won 5 straight easily, but unlike the Bulls they underperformed!!! Do you know anything about basketball???
Only 27 teams in the league in 1990 my man. The next lot of expansion teams. Where Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors in 1995. So 29th pick was 2nd round.
@@Gerclun all good mate, im showing my age as that was my era of basketball. Kukoc was definitely better then the 29th, but at the time overseas players where more unknowns and teams weren't sure they were of NBA standard.
@@AusCardDad We are about the same age then. Because I saw him playing with Jugoplastika in the Euroleague together with Radja and Savic. That team was dominating in Europe since they were so young. A team that was wonderful to watch.
Kukoc wasnt even the best player on that Croatia team, Drazan Petrovic was who rung up a game high 24 points against TEAM USA.. I think the real story was how Jordan and Pippen didnt want to guard the best player on the other team so they wouldnt get embarrassed... Not bad though a country of less than 5 million people playing up with the best team every put together and winning the Silver Medal...
