Toni Kukoc spoke about the success of Serbian basketball players who won a silver medal at the FIBA World Cup.
Toni Kukoc, during an appearance on N1 television, discussed the Serbian national team, which became the runner-up in the world on Sunday, and their coach, Svetislav Pesic, with whom he became a junior world champion in Bormio in 1987.
“I followed the championship, and we all know that Serbia has continuity when it comes to coaches and players. However, the best player, not only from Serbia but also in the world, did not play for the national team. That’s the reason they didn’t win the final, even though they came close. Basketball is not an individual but a team sport. They shouldn’t be singled out. We know who the core of this team is, and in my opinion, the coach is perhaps most responsible for their success.
It all starts with him; he needs to assemble the players. In today’s world, these players can’t be together for two to three months like in the old days. They gather a few weeks before the championship. You need to be a good coach and integrate them. Most of them don’t play together on their club teams, and that’s the reason why we don’t see much success here in Croatia, and also in Bosnia. And we know that both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have NBA players. Serbia is capable of connecting them and achieving success,” former basketball player Kukoc emphasized.
He also spoke about Serbia’s coach, Svetislav Pesic.
“His seriousness is his main characteristic. That’s how he is during the game, but when you are outside of that, he is not serious. Maybe in my time, he was even stricter because you know what kids are like. If you let them, they will go anywhere. He was quite strict, demanding, but he knew how to separate the player-coach relationship from the human-human relationship. He could distinguish all that; he wouldn’t have been in basketball for so long if he didn’t,” Kukoc said, whose record for the number of assists in the World Championship was broken by Arturs Zagars.
He also discussed his relationship with Michael Jordan.
“There are many anecdotes, too many. When you win three championships, you remember every day, every practice, and every game. He was very private, even in those moments. You’d see him at practices and on trips rarely. They always protected him. When we finished our careers, we had the opportunity to get to know each other better. As a rival, I don’t know if there’s anyone greater in that sport. He’s the only person who did every training session and every game.
It was never difficult for him, but today’s players look for excuses. Even though they told him to rest, he was always there. As for his human qualities, at least toward me, and I know others who say the same: he was so relaxed, normal, natural. There are things he doesn’t like, like when people he doesn’t know come up to him and start talking. He’d talk about golf, cigars… he rarely talked about basketball. Those were the good old days,” the legendary Chicago Bulls basketball player noted.
He compared today’s basketball to that of former Yugoslavia.
“I don’t know much about that anymore; I don’t live here. I come for a few months, but I know that in the past, more attention was paid to younger generations. Starting from the age of 14-15, they worked on the fundamental factors of basketball. I don’t know how many coaches are willing to do that. They want the first teams to spend their time on. There are very few who will invest 7-8 hours a day teaching young guys about basketball. Because it has been shown that if you teach someone how to play basketball, the basics of basketball, and a few different positions, it’s much easier to connect them on the court. They can function much better as a unit,” Toni Kukoc emphasized.
He expressed his desire to be remembered as a good person rather than just a good athlete:
“Sports are great, but that’s natural talent. There are a million kids who would like to play like Messi, Jordan, Djokovic, but they can’t because they don’t have natural talent. Talent takes you to a certain level, but it’s all about hard work to make a difference between yourself and others. I can’t say I’ve found a bad person in the careers of athletes. That’s one of my biggest observations. I really haven’t come across one, and I know a lot of those athletes and great athletes. I can say that he’s a bad person.”
The native of Split still has a role with the Chicago Bulls.
“I still work for the Bulls as a supervisor of the owner’s son. I’m at every game, whether I want to be reminded or not. The audience there will remind you of everything. We’re talking about a big city where everyone wanted to go to a Chicago Bulls game. The whole day revolves around the Chicago game, and we can easily plan the rest,” Kukoc concluded.