THIS year, along with the tragically deceased Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Eddie Sutton, Rudy Tomjanovich, Tamika Catchings, Kim Mulkey, and Barbara Stevens entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

When new members are admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in September, Toni Kukoc will not be among them.

Fans in Croatia, but also around the world, are surprised that the basketball maestro won't be admitted to the Hall of Fame this year, and the great Svetislav Pesic, a man who raised Kukoc, Radja, Divac, and Djordjevic, and who was coaching the great junior national team of Yugoslavia when they easily won the gold in 1987 in Bormio, was especially angry. During that Cup, the Croats beat the Americans twice, with Kukoc scoring 11 three-pointers from 12 attempts in the first game.

Toni was an extraordinary basketball player who turned his play into art.

He won almost everything he could during his career and is one of the most trophy-winning basketball players of all time. The only thing he didn't win is the Olympic gold, but he won two silver medals. However, Kukoc was not a basketball sensation only because of the trophies and medals he won, but also because basketball was more than a game when the ball was in his hands. One of his nicknames was the Magician.

After all, he was a member of the best European club team of all time, the best European national team in history, and an important part of the most powerful NBA team ever.

"Toni Kukoc is the best basketball player I have coached in my entire career. I have been asked many times who the best player I have ever coached is, and the answer has always been the same. If basketball ever resembled art, it was while he was playing. Today, anyone can jump or shoot, but he is the one who raised basketball play to another level with his magic of passing. He was able to get in the head of each member of the opposing team and find a free player with incredible speed," the legendary Bozo Maljkovic told us a few months ago.

There is no doubt that there will be a spot for Kukoc in Springfield, but so far, only Kreso Cosic, Drazen Petrovic, Mirko Novosel, and Dino Radja have been admitted.

Mirko Novosel, a trophy-winning former Yugoslavia coach, commented on whether he believes that Kukoc has been wronged.

"The admission of Toni to the Hall of Fame is not questionable. It's only a matter of when it's going to happen. Toni would have probably joined the HOF this year had it not been for the emergency situation surrounding the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. According to the rules, at least five years have to pass since the player's last game for him to be accepted. His death shocked everyone, including the deciding board. There was no regular procedure, and an exception was made. It is also important to point out that Toni, just like Dino and Vlade, will be elected to the HOF by the International Committee. This year, that honor was given to Patrick Baumann, who was FIBA executive for 15 years. In general, the whole selection was strange, the circumstances were not usual, and I think that's why Toni wasn't selected," Novosel told us, and then commented on a question that interests many basketball fans in Croatia - how and why Radja entered the HOF before Kukoc?

"Dino deserved his place there. Also, I think it was crucial that Radja was a Boston player, and the Celtics are more than a club in America. They are an institution, and I believe that influenced the decision. Still, I repeat, I am not afraid for Toni. I am sure he'll get his spot in Springfield as soon as next year," said the coach of the golden Cibona of the eighties.

Dino Radja and Toni Kukoc left their mark on Split, as well as European and world basketball. Dino agrees with Novosel and says it is only a matter of time before Toni becomes his neighbor in Springfield.

"There is a place for him there. There's not a single per mille of people who follow basketball who think Toni won't end up there. His quality and class are unquestionable, he proved everything he could prove, and if it had been up to me, we would have entered the HOF together. That would have been fair," said Radja.

Toni Kukoc's greatest successes:

He won the European Championship three times in a row with Jugoplastika

He won the Yugoslavia Championship four times in a row with Jugoplastika

He won the European Championship twice, as well as the World Championship and an Olympic silver from Seoul with the senior national team of Yugoslavia

He won the Olympic silver, as well as world and European bronze

1990 World Cup MVP

He was the Euroleague MVP three times

He was voted Europe's MVP five times

He won the NBA championship three times with the Bulls

He won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1996

Member of FIBA's Hall of Fame