Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by Toni Kukoc - Page 2

I've been playing 10 years and I know it's easier starting the game. You have the opportunity to play much more aggressively.

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.

Sometimes I haven't been happy, but it was never a problem with somebody around me. And winning, that helps a lot.

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.

My thought is the only way I will have progress is in the NBA.

In Italy, my wife and I always said we feel like strangers because there's maybe only a couple other people from other parts of the world. Here in Chicago, there's millions of people from Poland, thousands from Japan, hundreds from Croatia. We like it here.

My family, I can say, is pretty Americanized. My son has lived pretty much all his life in Chicago, my daughter was born in Chicago, we all like Chicago.

I mean, if you're going to get traded, you're always looking for a good team to play with.

It's not requirement to have a point guard, you can have skill players with 3 or 4 guys on the same team playing multiple positions.

It is a thrill and an honor to again be a part of the team that helped define my basketball career here in the United States and in Chicago. The Bulls have become my extended family, and I am really looking forward to the future and being a Bull for life.

I didn't play the No. 4 spot much at all in Europe.

Kevin Durant, to me in my personal opinion, is the best player in the NBA.

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

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

Everyone has an ego. Even someone that doesn't play one minute has an ego.

When you see me laughing on the court, it means I'm having fun and enjoying the game.

Obviously, when you come onto a team that's playing in the Finals and the standards are so high that nothing but winning a championship is success, coming in new to that kind of environment, of course you're going to put pressure on yourself.

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.

My wife doesn't want to go. She says, 'I am your wife, I will do as a wife should.' But she is worried about what she will do in Chicago, all by herself.

My choice was either Chicago or Milwaukee. Milwaukee is going with a young team and Chicago is in need of a big guy, so that's it.

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 my game is going well, everything gets much easier, offensively and defensively.

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

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.

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

I always felt like I needed to play basketball.

At least I can say no player got as much attention from the Dream Team as I did.

Like everybody coming from Europe, I didn't believe it at first, but you really need time to adjust. I thought it was going to be like going from Croatia to Italy. But you really need the time just to understand things here.

Everything about me is Croatian.

I understood I would have to earn respect. I was coming to the best team in the world. You have to put aside all your accolades and pride. It doesn't matter if you were good in Europe. I was OK with that.

I'm excited to try the NBA. But, for sure, I need time on the court to get used to this style.

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.

I have always felt that I have to play with the ball to be the best player I can.

I try to help people looking for food and money and clothes. I have done some radio transmissions here in Italy to tell people the truth about Croatia.

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

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 think it's time for me to move away from basketball. It was a huge part of my life and gave me pretty much everything I desired but there comes a time when you just can't take it anymore.

I love Scottie. The guy that helped me the most those first two years was Scottie. He is so easy to play with.

Michael will always, to me, be the best player ever. He changed the game. He made it global. Every player today should tip their hat to him.

I feel as long as I'm playing productive minutes, I'll play. But if I'm sitting on the bench and not doing anything, then I'll retire.

If you are physically ready to play, it's a matter of confidence. Your confidence goes down when you lose games, when shots are not going in.

One score makes happy ONE player, one assist makes happy TWO.