Lauri Markkanen was the Athlete of the Year by a surprisingly small margin, even though a lot of people voted for him first. Markkanen commented on the issue by referring to the sports icon’s speech.
Roope Visuri,
Antti-Jussi Sipilä
Lauri Markkanen won the Sportsman of the Year award, but there was a special detail in the vote of the members of the Sports Journalists’ Association.
Markkanen collected no less than 126 first places Wilma Murron 48 against the first place, but Markkanen won the vote with only 119 points. The voting result probably indicated tactical voting. Many voters apparently either left Markkanen at the bottom of the list or out of it altogether.
When Markkanen met the Finnish media via remote connection after the election, he was immediately asked for his opinion on tactical voting.
Markkanen said that he had not yet seen the exact results.
– This is where we sit (as a winner). That’s enough for me, Markkanen acknowledged before smiling broadly.
– There was a lot of talk that that should be invoked. Say LeBron’s 2012 “it’s about time” speech. Let’s go with it now.
Markkanen referred to the NBA superstar LeBron James’s to the iconic speech after the 2012 finals. James won his first NBA championship in his ninth NBA season. James echoed the iconic words “it’s about damn time” in the interview after the championship. Later, Markkanen also published the same clip from the interview with James in the story section of his Instagram account after his trophy photos.
1. Lauri Markkanen, basketball, 1998 (126 first places)
2. Wilma Murto, athletics, 1879 (48)
3. Kalle Rovanperä, rally, 1645 (29)
4. Lukas Hradecky, football, 1236 (17)
5. Martti Puumalainen, judo, 977 (6)
6. Sami Välimäki, golf, 673 (4)
7. Mikko Rantanen, hockey, 615 (1)
8. Reetta Hurske, athletics, 587 (0)
9. Kerttu Niskanen, skiing, 491 (1)
10. Harri Heliövaara, tennis, 484 (0)
Markkanen told his teammates to wonder
When Markkanen received the Sportsman of the Year award at 1:00 p.m. local time, the Finnish star was immediately congratulated by the GM of the Utah Jazz Justin Zanik and head coach Will Hardy. Markkanen was able to teach his coach Finnish on a live TV broadcast when he met what he read in the awards. Markkanen and Hardy went through what it means to be Sportsman of the Year.
Right after the TV broadcast, Markkanen revealed to Urheilu that the winning trophy would go to the locker room before the day’s exercises, i.e. punt practice and watching videos. A good hour and a half later and after training, Markkanen said that many teammates had not yet had time to react to Markkanen’s recognition.
– The group does its own thing after training. We are in the booth at different times. A few came to congratulate, Markkanen told about the reactions of his teammates.
– The prizes are in the box at the back of the booth. Won’t they pay attention to it when we go a few hours ahead? Now they were probably more wondering what the prize was.
Have a nice evening and await Iivo Niskanen’s letter
Markkanen told Urheilu at the Utah Jazz premises that the local time in the evening was to celebrate the award with family and relatives. Markkanen hoped to spend a nice evening in Salt Lake City as well.
In addition, there was one thing waiting for Markka. At the sports gala, it was shown that the winner of the Sportsman of the Year award last year Iivo Niskanen left a letter to the next winner, in this case Lauri Markkanen.
However, Markkanen told from Utah via a remote connection that he had not yet had time to familiarize himself with the contents of the letter.
– Maybe in the evening at home you can study that letter, Markkanen thought.
The tradition started last year when Matti Mattsson had left a letter for Niskanen.
Under Markkanen’s leadership, the Utah Jazz are currently the hottest team in the NBA. There have been 9 wins in the last 11 games. The night before the sports gala, the reigning champion Denver Nuggets, starred by the best player in the world, fell Nikola Jokic.
After a difficult early season, Markkanen’s Utah has risen to fight for a place in the playoffs. The teams ranked 7–10 in the conferences qualify for the playoffs. Utah was ranked 11th in the Western Conference before last night’s NBA round. Two teams from the playoff qualifiers qualify for the actual playoffs in each conference.
Markkanen told Urheilu in an interview at the Utah Jazz facilities that he is going in the right direction as a player. Markkanen sees that he can still develop a lot as a player.
– It’s a cool feeling when you can now see the result of the work after perhaps more difficult years. When you have been able to press on with work and still try to enjoy the difficult moments, you have still known that the difficult times will end someday. Now you have reached a place where the joy of playing is probably the highest ever. I enjoy what I do now. It gives additional motivation that you can still develop quite a lot, Markkanen praised in Utah.
Even before the current season, Markkanen made the first playoffs of his NBA career his goal. Markkanen said in an interview with after the Sports Gala that he dreams of even bigger things in the future.
– I dream of the championship. The desire to win has always been so high throughout my life. Be it on the field or off the field. I have always wanted to be the best, Markkanen summarized.
The next time Lauri Markkanen will be on the NBA court will be early Saturday Finland time against Toronto. You can see the highlights of Markkanen’s NBA matches fresh every morning on ‘s website and in the app.