Chicago Bulls legend Toni Kukoc is finally getting enshrined to the James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday. It took quite a while for the Croatian national, but his legacy is finally being immortalized as part of the class of 2021.
Kukoc recently opened up about some of the most memorable aspects of his career, and naturally, he had to talk about the great Michael Jordan. Kukoc did admit that MJ was never the best teammate, but that this was also one of the reasons why Jordan made everyone around him better:
“In every way possible,” Kukoc said Friday, when asked how Jordan influenced him (h/t K.C. Johnson of NBC Chicago). “He wasn’t the nicest of teammates. But in a way, he was pushing everybody to practice good.”
It’s no secret that MJ was not a nice guy. However, as Kukoc revealed in his statement above, Jordan’s no-nonsense attitude was what was needed for the Bulls to succeed. And they absolutely did.
Be that as it may, Kukoc also admitted that MJ wasn’t his favorite teammate. That honor belonged to another Bulls icon in Scottie Pippen:
“I always say Michael probably was the best player,” said Kukoc when asked who his favorite teammate was, via Sam Smith of NBA.com. “Scottie, to me, was as important as Michael. Because of that idea that Scottie was taking care of the whole team and was guarding people. He would bring the ball up and would find the right people and then for Michael it was, ‘OK, take us home.’”
There will perhaps be no other team like the Chicago Bulls of the 90s. Their unique make-up as a unit is what makes them stand out as one of, if not the greatest team in NBA history. The fact that they had Michael Jordan as their centerpiece also has a lot to do about it. What cannot be denied, however, is that Toni Kukoc was a key piece to the Bulls dynasty as well.
