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Toni Kukoc Biography

Birth Name:Toni Kukoc

Birth Place:Split, Croatia

Profession Actor

Fast Facts

  • Born to a shipyard worker father and a part-time office assistant mother
  • Spent much of his childhood playing soccer with his friends and competing at ping-pong
  • Quote: "I would certainly say that the ex-Yugoslavian team with Vlade, Drazen, Dino and myself, that was probably the best team, I would say besides the 1992 Dream Team, in the whole world․"
  • Quote: "My first day when I landed in Chicago, it was the day Michael Jordan's dad had been killed․ The third day after I had landed in Chicago, Michael had retired․ That's how my NBA career began․"
  • Eventually let his European career behind and started playing with the Chicago Bulls in the NBA
  • Was one of the "Big Six" of international basketball that inspired the formation of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team
  • Developed an intense interest in golf during his NBA career when, at a photo shoot with long-drive champion Jason Zuback, he got the opportunity to take a few swings with Zuback's club
  • Claims to have lost 1,200 golf balls in the first three months of learning how to play golf
  • Won Croatia's national amateur golf championship in 2011
  • When a film was made about the Dream Team, Kukoc learned that Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan had teamed up against him in the Olympics to make Jerry Krause look bad for paying more attention to foreign talent than them