“The Were Ready for Blood”: How Michael Jordan & Scottie Pippen Took Revenge on Jerry Krause by Targeting Toni Kukoc

The second episode of The Last Dance- the documentary on Michael Jordan- revolved around Scottie Pippen’s contract and Michael Jordan.

While Pippen was proving his worth for the team, General Manager Jerry Krause was looking to bring in a youngster Toni Kukok. Pippen and Jordan weren’t impressed with it although they felt he would be useful for the team.

They first came across the European youngster in the 1992 Olympics. The documentary showed that Jordan and Pipper decided to give Kukoc the “worst experience” he ever had on a basketball court. They wanted to humiliate Krause. They took turns to guard Kukok and not let him getaway. And they succeeded too. In the game, Kukoc finished with just four points and seven turnovers.

Chris Mullin, a member of the then USA team, recently looked back at it on Wednesday’s episode of The Habershow as per NBC Sport.

“I think Michael was taken care of, but Scottie was his boy,” Mullin said. “That’s his running mate. Definitely coming into that game, it was a different intensity. Michael and Scottie were like fighting over who was going to shut this guy down. They were going to send a message and he was not going to, nevermind have a decent game, he wasn’t going to be able to move.”

Toni Kukoc later joined Michael Jordan at Chicago Bulls

In 1993, Kukoc eventually joined the Bulls. He became one of the most established European stars in the NBA. He was a part of the Bulls team that achieved a thee-peat between 1996 and 1998. After watching the documentary, Kuvoc wanted the upcoming episodes to be more a “celebration of Basketball.”

“I’m hoping the other episodes are brighter and more of a celebration of basketball instead of who is guilty or to blame, and why didn’t they win eight championships or 10. The world was so happy when that was happening. So I don’t know what people are mad at,” Kukoc said as per NBC.

Kukoc played seven years with the Bulls between 1993 and 2000. He later played a season each for Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks before joining the Milwaukee Bucks,