There are three clear reasons behind the choice of Lauri Markkanen. However, one of them had recently been forgotten, writes Urheilu’s editor Roope Visuri.
Roope Visuriruheluth reporter
Lauri Markkanen has won nothing. This is how many people criticized before the Sports Gala whether the Finnish basketball star can be chosen as Athlete of the Year.
You could just as well answer that Markkanes doesn’t have a very realistic chance of winning medals in the Finnish jersey.
At the club level in the world’s best basketball league, the NBA, Markkase has had the same situation during seven seasons. Chicago, Cleveland or the current team Utah have not been able to win championships at any point.
It would be somehow strange to demand a race medal from such an athlete, for whom it is not practically possible. In a team sport, one man can rarely carry everyone. Of course, you can always bet on whether Markkanen can still win something in the NBA in the future. However, the sports gala does not look ahead, but to the previous year. That is also how Markkanen has earned his award.
Let’s list the reasons for it as simply as possible.
1. Basketball is a global sport and Markkanen is one of the world’s elite
Let’s start with the obvious. Basketball is the second most popular ball sport in the world.
Basketball is one of the major global sports with hundreds of millions of fans. The best basketball league in the world is the NBA. Only 450 players start the season there every year.
Markkanen belongs to the sharpest top of these players. He is at least a top 30 player. Markkanen was selected for the NBA all-star game last spring.
It’s not just fun in the NBA, but the choice comes with respect. Markkanen also won the NBA’s most developed player award. Markkanen therefore took a very hard development leap in the midst of the world’s best.
2. In global sports, Markkanen is one of the best at doing the most essential thing
Last spring, Markkanen was also one of the most efficient scorers in the entire NBA. He was even a historic and exceptional player in the history of the entire series in terms of how versatile he made baskets.
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Markkanen flashed with his dunks and triples in a way that has not been seen before in the history of the series. More than 200 dunks and more than 100 three-pointers in three seasons don’t mean much to a large nation, but similar versatility has not been experienced in the NBA.
At the end of the year, Markkanen continued almost at the same pace, even though his teammates around him weakened, behind him was military service and the World Cup.
So Markkanen is one of the best players in basketball to do exactly that, which is the essence of the whole game. The Finn is excellent at putting the ball through the basket and scoring points for his team, i.e. enabling victories. An exceptional superstar of a global sport.
3. One important thing forgotten in the criticism of the national team
Speaking of the World Cup, we also get to one forgotten fact about Markkanen.
Many commentators on social media have raised the criticism directed at Markkasen for the Finn’s performances in the national team shirt in the last year. It is true that Markkanen was not in the god mode of the previous European Championships at the World Championships. It is true that Susijengi performed with minor success.
However, in the end, Finland suffered only one surprise loss at the World Cup to Japan, who played in ecstasy. Otherwise, the result was expected. However, many people have managed to forget that Markkanen eventually forged wild statistics in the World Championships as well.
Markkanen was the third best scorer of the entire WC. This fact was not present, for example, in the candidate presentations on the Sports Gala pages. However, that fact is exceptional Finnish sports history.
It will be interesting to see if Markkanen’s choice is also a bigger breakthrough or if he is Lukas Hradecky (2020) and Teemu Pukin (2019) continued as an exceptional case. Now, three of the last five Athletes of the Year have been team athletes. In the previous 71 times, the team athlete was awarded only twice. They were Jari Litmanen and sami Hyypiä.
Of these, Litmanen was elected in 1995 and Hyypia in 2001. Now in 2024, Hyypia was elected to the hall of fame of Finnish sports. It wouldn’t be surprising if, 23 years from now, Markkas would be remembered at the Sports Gala alongside Litmanen and Hyypiä as one of the all-time Finnish ball sports athletes. All the conditions for that exist.