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Par Guillaume Kagni | Journaliste sportif
When he joined the Bulls in 1993, Toni Kukoc was already a benchmark. At the age of 25, he was a three-time European champion, a Final Four MVP and part of a talented squad. Yet, like everyone else, he was hazed by his teammates.
There are traditions in the NBA, and no one can escape them, not even the best prospects. Upon their arrival in the league, all youngsters must undergo a hazing that usually lasts their entire rookie season. Some have to fetch breakfast every morning for the rest of the locker room, others have to carry veteran bags on the move.
In his excellent podcast, Jeff Teague even explained that he should always have condoms on him and be ready to hand them out to Hawks alumni while on the road. As a guest on Stephen Brun’s show on RMC, legend Toni Kukoc talked about the Bulls’ treatment of him in his first year. As a 25-year-old rookie, he had a hard time digesting it.
Toni Kukoc talks about Bulls hazing
For me, leaving Europe where I’d had a lot of success and arriving in Chicago was like starting my career from scratch. When I was a rookie, I had to bring food to my teammates, carry their bags. I had to do all the rookie things. You can go crazy, tell yourself it’s not your job to do these things, but in the end you alienate your partners.
But you can also tell yourself that it only lasts a year and that it’s an ordeal you have to get over. The following year, it’s up to another rookie to take that place and do those things. I wore the bags during my first season. I also had to take them off the plane and put them on the bus. I was a three-time European champion and I had to carry other players’ bags. You have to think it’s fun and part of the experience.
By the time he arrived in the NBA, Toni Kukoc was already a three-time EuroLeague champion, a multiple Final Four MVP and an executive with the Yugoslavian and then Croatian national teams. In practical terms, he was far better than some of the Bulls players whose belongings he had to carry in a rather degrading fashion. But that’s rookie life in the league, nobody can escape it.
Michael Jordan may have retired that season, but there were still Bulls identity guarantors like Scottie Pippen. How could Toni Kukoc have refused the requests of a champion as respected as No. 33? If he had alienated the dressing room by playing the star, he might not have stayed for Chicago’s second 3peat.
