NBA legend Toni Kukoc and his wife Renata revealed that they cut short their own wedding so that he could watch the Chicago Bulls play the Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals.
“The night we’re getting married and everything, I said, ‘We guys can party till like 3 o’clock. And then there’s a game against Phoenix on TV. So, that’s when we’ll all go home,” Kukoc recalled.
How the Bulls won the 1993 NBA Finals
Kukoc witnessed the Bulls winning the 1993 NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns to become the first team to secure a three-peat since Bill Russell’s Celtics in the 1960s.
The Bulls scored only 12 points in the fourth quarter of Game 6, but still managed to survive and beat the Suns 99-98 on June 20, 1993.
Chicago had an 87-79 lead after three quarters before getting into a scoring slump—they didn’t score in the first 6:09 of the fourth quarter. The Bulls had three shot-clock violations in that span, and Suns’ fans at American West Arena sparked their defense and got them back in the game.
Michael Jordan would be the one to end the scoreless drought with a free throw with 5:51 left. Then Jordan scored the next eight points. The Bulls had possession, trailing 98-96 with 14.1 seconds to play, after Dan Majerle air-balled a shot.
The Suns didn’t want to let Jordan beat them, but they forgot about John Paxson in the process, and he hit the game-winning three-point shot with 3.9 seconds to play. Horace Grant then blocked a Kevin Johnson shot, and the Bulls won the game 99-98.
Kukoc joins the Bulls
Kukoc got the chance to play for the greatest team of all time while being a key contributor. The Bulls drafted Kukoc in 1990, but circumstances prevented him from becoming teammates with Jordan and Scottie Pippen earlier.
Kukoc eventually joined Pippen in 1993, and by 1995, he would get the chance to play with Jordan, as he returned to the Bulls after retiring on October 6, 1993.
Jordan’s absence helped Kukoc get more playing time. Overall, things didn’t go so well for the Bulls, as they could not defend their three-peat in 1994.
With Jordan out of the league, other teams built competitive squads, including the Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon and beat the Knicks and Magic to win back-to-back NBA Championships.
Kukoc shared for NBA.com how Jordan’s drive and dedication 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 a while he would take a day off or not have that motivation when it came to practice. But with Michael, that was never the case.”
