Kornél Dávid
Years on Bulls 1998-2000 (kind of)
Stats: 6.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 0.7 apg, 17.5 mpg
My Bulls Memory: You have to understand, Kornél Dávid was billed as the “Michael Jordan of Hungary.” And while I couldn’t point out where Hungary is on a map, even to this day, the last MJ comparison attributed to a European player by the Bulls organization had been given to the one and only Toni Kukoč. Not too shabby of a player, all in all, so hopes were high.
Then, he played an NBA basketball game.
Don’t get me wrong, there were some good memories. I remember him hitting a game winner once or twice. But far more often I remember him being absolutely lost on the court, offensively and defensively, and making just about the poorest decisions a player could make in any situation.
I understand there are certain adjustments that need to be made for European players making the transition to the NBA, from language barriers to play styles, but this level of confusion was on a totally different level. It’s like by simply traveling 5,000 miles (yes, I Googled it), he simply forgot how to play the game of basketball. Disappointment doesn’t even cover it.
Career Accomplishments: As for the NBA, his biggest accomplishment comes on the losing end of an interaction with Tracy McGrady’s insane hops. However, if you look at his international career, he’s quite an accomplished player.
As a member of Albacomp Székesfehérvár, he won the Hungarian National Championship not once, but twice in 1998 and 2000. In 2003 he snagged a Lithuanian National Championship as a member of BC Žalgiris. And to this day, Kornél Dávid remains the only Hungarian to play in the NBA.
Where are they now? He’s a little difficult to track down since he’s just one of a zillion Hungarian sports stars (kidding), but it looks like his last big gig was with Hungarian basketball club Alba Fehérvár where he was elected unanimously as the team’s President. It’s no surprise as he’s on their famed “Wall of Immortals” and has his number retired by the team.
After literally an hour of searching, I found he had been replaced in July of 2015 by Imre Balássi according to this Facebook post/press release on their official page. It is still unclear to me if this is in fact the same Imre Balássi that was the President of the women’s handball team, but I suppose it could have been.
However, it looks like Dávid is still running the Hungarian and Lithuanian basketball circuits pretty regularly and you can bask in his healthy glow in this YouTube video I found of him giving some commentary between a game between Zalgiris Kaunas and Panathinaikos Athens.