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The ultimate sports figure. The ultimate competitor. Great person. I consider him my friend. I wouldn't be that good if I was Michael Jordan.
When I was drafted by Chicago, I said, 'Wow, it would be nice to play with those guys.' I knew I'd have an automatic chance to win a championship.
I try to imagine what it will be like to play for the Bulls. I don't think I will be able to feel it before I step on the court at Chicago Stadium.
I try to help people looking for food and money and clothes. I have done some radio transmissions here in Italy to tell people the truth about Croatia.
I'm not a political man. I'm a basketball player. So that's what I have to do first. But second, I will try to help my country because I am a Croatian.
I shot millions and millions of shots, just wanted the ball and felt good every time I released the ball, especially in those last seconds of big games.
My wife doesn't want to go. She says, 'I am your wife, I will do as a wife should.' But she is worried about what she will do in Chicago, all by herself.
My family, I can say, is pretty Americanized. My son has lived pretty much all his life in Chicago, my daughter was born in Chicago, we all like Chicago.
My generation, with Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, that was the first wave of European players that kind of opened the door for the world.
It was almost an accident that I got into basketball at all but fortunately it wasn't too late and I was able to be a part of a great generation for the sport.
Someone can tell you something a million times, but if you don't know what they're talking about, it's hard to adjust and even more difficult to become a believer.
I don't want to say which guard it was with the Bulls, but I would take the ball and he would come to me and say, 'You are taking my bread.' I didn't know the slang.
It's a saying if coach likes and sees good stuff in you and wants you to play he'll pick on you, he'll make you work and do things right. Once he stops talking to you, you know you're done.
I think it's time for me to move away from basketball. It was a huge part of my life and gave me pretty much everything I desired but there comes a time when you just can't take it anymore.
I was one of the main guys on my team and you always want to check people that you're bringing in. Are they tough enough physically and mentally? Can they respond when you need them to respond?
Scottie was just a different character than Michael. He was more the soft side. Every once in a while he would explode, but he would help me. Michael on the other end was almost always aggressive.
For nine years, I was playing at more or less the same weight and I'm a little bit slower than I used to be. But I'm glad I have a couple of pounds more because I think it will help me in games for sure.
I understood I would have to earn respect. I was coming to the best team in the world. You have to put aside all your accolades and pride. It doesn't matter if you were good in Europe. I was OK with that.
Now if you ask me about coming from Europe, I would suggest to any young player interested in the NBA to not spend two or three years in Europe searching for money. Just give it a shot. You can always go back.
Chicago is one of the greatest places when it comes to sports. It kind of reminds me of my hometown in Split. It doesn't matter how bad the soccer team is, everybody worships the soccer, the players and the games.
Like everybody coming from Europe, I didn't believe it at first, but you really need time to adjust. I thought it was going to be like going from Croatia to Italy. But you really need the time just to understand things here.
I have an easy way to explain the war. It's a Croatian defending his country and a Serb attacking a Croatian country. With anyone who has a problem with understanding what's going on, that is the easiest way to understand it.
Obviously, when you come onto a team that's playing in the Finals and the standards are so high that nothing but winning a championship is success, coming in new to that kind of environment, of course you're going to put pressure on yourself.
It is a thrill and an honor to again be a part of the team that helped define my basketball career here in the United States and in Chicago. The Bulls have become my extended family, and I am really looking forward to the future and being a Bull for life.
In Italy, my wife and I always said we feel like strangers because there's maybe only a couple other people from other parts of the world. Here in Chicago, there's millions of people from Poland, thousands from Japan, hundreds from Croatia. We like it here.
Coming here, I never thought about being like what I was supposed to be in Europe, the No. 1 guy and building the whole team around you. Coming here, I was relaxed about that because I knew there was going to be Michael, Scottie, Horace and I could learn from them.
Sometimes in my mind I have a picture of something happening, and because the foot is not right it is harder to happen. I see the ball and I can see myself intercepting it or rebounding or doing this stuff, and it's just not there. There's not the movement or explosiveness.
I thought those three years when we won championships, I really was good enough to play in the All-Star game. I felt I deserved to be in the top whatever that would be, the top 20-some players in the league. Really felt that comfortable and confident on the basketball court.
I think it's very important for every player after a long season, whether it's good or bad, to get total rest. Not just physically and mentally from basketball and the pressure on the court, but the pressures outside, too. Then, when you come back, everything's exciting again.
A lot has to be the NBA. I don't know if I can say it is the egos of the players or the money that goes around and everything. But those relationships between the coaches and the players are just not the same. They are not even close to the European coach-player relationships.
I would say it was my fault, my choice to not allow people to know who I was. Places I went, people I knew, they knew the way Toni Kukoc was as a person and they all treated me great. Everyone else who just read the newspapers and tried to learn about me, I guess I was not that good of a guy.
You never know when people with sick minds can destroy your life. It doesn't matter how well life is going on for you that moment. If that can't happen in the middle of New York City, it can happen anywhere else. If the terrorists can hit the Pentagon or the White House I don't see where it's safe.