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Muted trumpet Kukoc has always had to fit into someone else's music
Updated: Thursday March 01, 2001 3:01 AM
I have been a closet Toni Kukoc fan for a long while. I seldom have mentioned my real thoughts -- that Kukoc was the closest facsimile to Larry Bird in the NBA, a big man who can pass and handle the ball and shoot from the outside -- because, well, the results never were there. People would look at me strangely every time I would speak. OK, so he can't guard anyone. OK, so he gets pushed around under the hoop. OK, so he's pretty much been a bust. I still have the feeling that circumstances, rather than ability, have determined his fate. He was a star in Europe, probably the biggest star ever in European basketball, but he never has had that opportunity here. From the three championships in Chicago with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and the Bulls to his year and a half in Philadelphia with Allen Iverson and the Sixers, he never has been the focal point, the go-through, go-to guy. He has been a muted trumpet in the band, fitting into someone else's music. Now he's in Atlanta, part of the Dikembe Mutombo trade. He was a small blip in that deal -- Mutombo making the Sixers into a viable contender for the NBA title -- but Kukoc is still the one who interests me. Is it too late? Has he finally found a home? I wait for my man to explode, so I can say "I told you so." Even though I seldom have told you so. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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