The Croatian native left Europe after a decorated international career before reaching success with the Bulls.
There is a seminal scene from the classic novel Don Quixote in which the hero has encountered the unconquerable, but he is not deterred. Nothing is too great it cannot be challenged, that the soul and the individual determine success; not other's expectations. Those are not giants, reports Sancho Panza. They are windmills. "You," Quixote replies, "do not know much about adventures."
And so it was for Toni Kukoc, a young man in communist Yugoslavia with big bones and big dreams and small hopes, at least those suggested by others.