Toni Kukoč was born on the 18thSeptember 1968 in Split, (then) SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia, and is best recognized for being a former Croatian professional basketball player who guided his team to three Euroleague titles. He is also known for being one of the first established European stars to play in the US National Basketball Association (NBA). His playing career was active from 1985 to 2006. Currently, he works as a Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls basketball team.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Toni Kukoč is? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that Toni counts his net worth at the amount of $30 million as of late 2016, with the main source of this amount of money being his career as a professional basketball player. Other sources are coming from his owning an NBA team, and from his working as a special advisor.
Toni Kukoč Net Worth $30 Million
Toni Kukoč spent his childhood in his hometown; his father was keen on sports so he passed that love to his son. Therefore, Toni started participating in different sports activities, firstly ping-pong which he started playing when he was eight years old and he managed to become a Croatian champ in table-tennis. Basketball wasn’t even his second love, as it was soccer, which he played from an early age, but officially from the age of 12 to 16. Around the age of 16, he grew up about eight inches and decided that basketball was the sport he wanted to pursue further.
At the age of 17, he started playing for his hometown team, Jugoplastika Split, and helped them win the Euroleague three years in a row (1989–1991). Moreover, his team won the Triple Crown in 1990 and 1991, so he was rewarded with the Euroleague Final Four MVP both times, which added a considerable amount to his potential net worth.
Afterwards, he won the Italian Championship in 1992 and Italian Cup in 1993 playing for the team Benetton Treviso, and won the Euroleague Final Four MVP once again when he played in the European Championship in 1993. Thanks to his great skills which gained him a lot of awards and success, he had many nicknames such as ‘the White Magic’, ‘the Spider from Split’, ‘the Pink Panther’, ‘the Waiter’, and ‘the Croatian Sensation’. Throughout the 1990s, he won several European Basketball Player of the Year Awards, increasing further his net worth.
During the 1990s he played for the national teams of Yugoslavia and then Croatia, even though he was drafted by the NBA team – the Chicago Bulls. At the World Championships he won a gold medal with Yugoslavia in 1990, and a bronze medal with Croatia in 1994. He also won two gold medals at the European Championships with Yugoslavia (1989, 91), and two bronzes with Yugoslavia 1987 and with Croatia in 1995.
He reported to the Chicago Bulls in 1993, just in time for Michael Jordan’s retirement. In 1995, Jordan returned and Scottie Pippen remained as a small forward which left Toni Kukoč on the bench. Nonetheless, he earned the NBA title and NBA Sixth Man of the Year award after getting the third highest score, only behind Pippen and Jordan. He played for the Bulls for seven years, but stayed in the NBA for six more years with the Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks, and Milwaukee Bucks in the following years, which increased his net worth by a large margin. His career as a basketball player ended in 2006.
However, Toni stayed in the sports industry, working as a Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf at the Chicago Bulls, which has contributed further to his fortune.
Regarding his personal life, Toni Kukoč is married to Renata Kukoč, with whom he has two children. Their current residence is in Chicago, Illinois.
