The columned archways of the Peristyle are a tip-off. We’re not in Chicago anymore.
Those fish (facing page) aren’t from Lake Michigan. They’re from the Adriatic Sea. And those aren’t Chicagoans sporting Bulls caps, shirts and jerseys. They’re Toni Kukoc’s neighbors.
This is Split, Croatia, hometown of the Bulls’ 6-11 forward and, although 7,000 miles east of Chicago, of tens of thousands of Bulls fans as well.
“It’s always been a basketball town,” Kukoc explains. Except that he overstates things a bit.
Split, which features the finest harbor on the Adriatic, has been around for 17 centuries (or more than 10 times longer than Chicago), having grown up initially in and around the palace that Roman Emperor Diocletian built for himself from 295 to 305 A.D.
Indeed, Diocletian liked his palace so much that, in 305, he resigned his emperorship and lived there in retirement until his death about eight years later. The Peristyle, now bordering a town square, is one of the many well-preserved remnants of the palace in Split.
Basketball wasn’t even invented until 1891.
Still, Croatians are a tall people and, among Europeans, have been quick to take up and master the game. Kukoc, a three-time European Player of the Year, led a Split-based team to the European championship in 1990.
He won silver medals in two Olympics–in 1992, with the Croatian national team and, in 1988, with the team from Yugoslavia, which then included Croatia.
Since July 1993, he has played a key role with the Bulls, helping the team win two National Basketball Association World Championships.
“For years, we had strong basketball teams here, but the NBA was always like a dream: `One day, one of our players will go there,’ ” says Split journalist Ivo Scepanovic. Kukoc wasn’t the first Croatian to make the NBA, but he has been the most successful. And popular.
So popular, in fact, that many Bulls games–even in mid-season–are broadcast live on Croatian TV, some starting as late as 2:30 a.m. (Split is seven hours ahead of Chicago.)
Although he is the local hero, Kukoc doesn’t get special treatment when he returns home.
“It’s a totally different thing over there,” he said during a recent interview at the United Center shortly before a game. “During the summer, they leave me alone. They know that I need some time off. I mean, they’re nice to me. They love to hear the stories from over here and stuff, but it’s not crazy like over here. The city’s not that big (around 200,000), so pretty much everybody knows each other, and it’s not that kind of thing.”
Well, not everything’s different.
All of the Bulls apparel comes from outside of Croatia, mainly from the U.S. That means that, even though Kukoc is immensely popular in Split, there’s relatively little Kukoc stuff to be seen.
Instead, it’s as if you’re out on Michigan Avenue on a Chicago summer day. Everywhere you turn, there’s Scottie Pippen’s jersey (No. 33).
And Michael Jordan’s face.
