Quotes from Toni Kukoc

Maybe NBA teams won't want me and maybe I'll play in Europe the last one or two seasons.

It is nice to start a game and feel the game from the beginning, but I have to pick up the pace when I come off the bench.

I'm not a political man. I'm a basketball player. So that's what I have to do first. But second, I will try to help my country because I am a Croatian.

If people say my numbers aren't enough for the Hall of Fame, I'm fine with that.

Only Vlade Divac go first year he play. The rest of the guys from Europe sit on the bench.

I am a basketball player. For me to sit on the bench at 21, 22, not what I wanted.

I've always said that besides the NBA, the Yugoslavian league and a Russian league were the best basketball leagues in the world.

When some new guy wants to beat you, and you know you are better than him, you will make him see immediately who is the boss.

When the confidence builds it is easier for the player to come into the next game.

It feels great to have the chance to play with the Chicago Bulls.

Now if you ask me about coming from Europe, I would suggest to any young player interested in the NBA to not spend two or three years in Europe searching for money. Just give it a shot. You can always go back.

It would be nice to play again for a team that has a great chance to win a championship.

It's very tough to build a championship team. It takes time and good players, and you have to get lucky as well.

My generation, with Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, that was the first wave of European players that kind of opened the door for the world.

I always felt like I needed to play basketball.

Plenty of times LeBron is mistaken as a point guard, which is awesome.

A lot has to be the NBA. I don't know if I can say it is the egos of the players or the money that goes around and everything. But those relationships between the coaches and the players are just not the same. They are not even close to the European coach-player relationships.

I always felt comfortable looking at the court.

I kind of expect that the people wouldn't know me. I know I'm tall and I cannot escape that.

When I first started playing, we practiced nine hours a day. Five and a half to six hours of those were working on the fundamentals.

I think it's very important for every player after a long season, whether it's good or bad, to get total rest. Not just physically and mentally from basketball and the pressure on the court, but the pressures outside, too. Then, when you come back, everything's exciting again.

I have an easy way to explain the war. It's a Croatian defending his country and a Serb attacking a Croatian country. With anyone who has a problem with understanding what's going on, that is the easiest way to understand it.

I thought those three years when we won championships, I really was good enough to play in the All-Star game. I felt I deserved to be in the top whatever that would be, the top 20-some players in the league. Really felt that comfortable and confident on the basketball court.

I am not a prima donna. It's just that I feel cold on the bench.