Toni Kukoc reveals how he knew that Michael Jordan was coming back from retirement in 1995

The Chicago Bulls drafted Toni Kukoc in 1990, but circumstances prevented him from becoming teammates with Michael Jordan. Kukoc was excited to team up with Jordan; however, he had to wait as Jordan announced his retirement on October 6, 1993.

This helped Kukoc’s playing time, as he found more minutes at small forward. Regarding winning championships, things didn’t go so well for the Bulls and they could not defend their three-peat in 1994.

The Bulls were still competitive without Jordan; they went 57-27 in the 1993-94 season and 47-35 in 1994-95.

Jordan’s absence opened a window for other teams to build competitive squads, and the Rockets, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, made the most of the opportunity. The Rockets only had two years to make it happen, and they succeeded, beating the Knicks and Magic to win back-to-back NBA Championships.

Jordan never left

During the 2020 NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago, Kukoc shared the secret of Jordan’s return. Kukoc revealed that Jordan never really left in 1993, as he practiced with the Bulls once a month throughout his baseball adventure.

Bulls’ players eventually thought that Jordan wasn’t gone forever. Still, there was no indication of when he would return. Kukoc had an interview with Vecernji List in his native Croatia, and he explained how he deduced when Jordan was coming back.

“One day I came to the locker room and Michael had dozens of shoes at his locker. Everyone knew he didn’t bring so much gear for just one practice. We weren’t allowed to talk about it until he announced it himself. All he did was send a fax saying ‘I’m back,’ “ Kukoc said.

Jordan’s return

Jordan’s first game back was on the road against the Pacers on March 19, 1995. Jordan didn’t travel with the team; he took a private jet to Indiana to manage the craziness that was about to happen.

The Bulls made the playoffs and eliminated the Hornets in four games in the first round, but they ran into a wall in the second round, facing a young, talented Magic team. Jordan made two costly turnovers in the final minutes of Game 1, and the Bulls never recovered mentally, losing the series in six games.

Jordan dedicated the entire summer to get his body in basketball shape again, and the rest is history. The Bulls went 72-10 in 1995-96, and Kukoc was named the Sixth Man of the Year after averaging 13.1 points, 4 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 26 minutes over 81 games.

That year the Bulls got their payback against the Magic, sweeping them in the Eastern Conference Finals before beating the SuperSonics to win their fourth NBA Championship. Kukoc told NBA.com why Jordan's legendary work ethic impressed him.

“The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Michael is how impressed I was with how he came to practice,” Kukoc explained. “With someone that good, you would think every once in awhile he would take a day off or not have that motivation when it came to practice. But with Michael, that was never the case.

Every single time, and every single day, he would come to practice and it would be a war. You would quickly realize why the guy was as good as he was. He never took a day off and always wanted to get better. He practiced like that and he played like that, and it made everyone around him want to do the same thing.”