– It’s just funny that you get paid so much for something you’d be willing to do for free. You shouldn’t say this to guys from Utah, Pekka Markkanen tells his son.
– This can be cut out of the documentary. I have to be paid 300 million to play, he says Lauri Markkanen laughing.
This scene is from the documentary about Lauri Markkanen – the Finnish superstar, which will premiere on Sunday.
The conversation between father and son was immortalized on the camera’s memory card when Lauri Markkasen was facing the most significant contract negotiations of his career.
Peaceful family life
At home, Lauri Markkanen, 27, hardly notices that he has already earned around 70 million dollars in his career.
Markkanen has played professionally in the world’s best basketball league, the NBA, since 2017.
However, the humble Jyväskylä doesn’t seem like a millionaire. Life in the suburbs of Salt Lake City moves forward in the same way as in any family with children in Finland.
The Jazz star player loves basketball. Markkanen wants to succeed in every match in the way star status demands among the best players in the world.
At home, he is a family man and a husband who enjoys ordinary everyday life surrounded by his loved ones. The 213-centimeter Finn is most comfortable at home – far from the NBA limelight.
After a normal regular season game, Markkanen arrives at a quiet home. Children and Verna-wife are already sleeping. It’s not possible for Markkanes to sleep for another couple of hours, because his body and mind are running hard after the match.
Markkanen calms down in his own way. The habit is certainly extremely rare among NBA players.
First, he retreats to the Finnish sauna. After this, he moves on to build a Harry Potter-related wizard’s castle out of Legos. Sometimes Markkanen calms his mind by putting together a puzzle.
After away games, sleep may be even shorter. Despite this, Markkanen wakes up in the morning to hustle with his children, even if he doesn’t get home from a game trip until four in the morning.
“I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling” – The Troubles of Chicago
In the last two seasons, Markkanen has definitively risen to the category of star players in the NBA. However, everything has not always been so smooth in his career. There have been several difficult moments.
Markkanen made his debut in the Chicago Bulls jersey on the NBA floor in October 2017 as a youngster of only 20 years old. At that time, everything was new and wonderful.
Markkanen had had time to get to know American culture in the ranks of the university league Arizona Wildcats even before becoming an NBA star. Getting used to the everyday life of a professional player took its own time, even if things went better on the field than Markkanen would have thought.
The players’ paths to the world’s toughest series are varied. For some players, opening the doors to the NBA is the only way to a better life, so it’s no wonder if the NBA’s massive salary bags put young players’ heads on wheels.
For example, jewelry and watches costing tens of thousands of dollars are commonplace in the NBA.
Markkanen admits that he was surprised at first when his teammates presented their luxury purchases.
– People come from many different cultures. In the early years, it was a bit of a culture shock for me that I didn’t seem to find similar people, Markkanen reveals.
In his second season in 2018-2019 in the shirt of the Chicago Bulls, Markkanen played with an average of 18.7 points and made his name once and for all known in the NBA.
After the season, Markkanen spent most of the summer in Jyväskylä. He trained hard and when he returned to North America he felt he was in the best shape of his life.
At the start of the new NBA season, Markkanen quickly noticed that his game performances did not meet his expectations.
The biggest reason for the lack of play was found at the end of the Bulls’ bench. The head coach by Jim Boyle had shrunk the role of Markkanen, praised as a versatile player, smaller than in previous years.
In Boylen’s playbook, the Finn’s task was to stand in the corner of the field and throw when he was free.
This put Markkanen’s mental abilities to a severe test.
– There were moments during the season when I came home after the match and Verna had heard the door open. He had come looking for me and I was just lying in bed staring at the ceiling. After the game I felt so empty that I didn’t want to do anything.
– It was quite a survival. My wife and I probably talked weekly about what to do after I’ve finished my career. It’s not very good for me when you think about such things at the age of 23, reveals Markkanen.
In addition to family and close friends, one of Markkanen’s most important supporters is a long-term player agent Mike Lelchitski.
After one phone conversation, Lelchitski noticed that Markkanen’s affairs were not in order at that time. The player agent decided to drive about 1,000 kilometers from the state of Maryland to Atlanta.
The team from Chicago, which was on a game trip, arrived at four o’clock in the morning in the lobby of the hotel, where Lelchitski was waiting for Markka.
– The Bulls people looked at me like what the hell is wrong with that guy. I just thought that now we’re here and I’m talking to you, says Lelchitski in his calm style.
– The fact that you got through these difficult times gives you the opportunity to shine today.
A six-figure sum from the watch
Markkanen’s career took a new turn. The move to Cleveland for the 2021–22 season was a new beginning, but the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place at the Utah Jazz, to which Markkanen was traded in the fall of 2022.
The biggest crown in Markkanen’s career so far has been selection to the starting five of the NBA All-Star Game in February 2023. At that time, Markkanen was on the same line LeBron James’s and Stephen Curry’s with superstars like
During the NBA All Star weekends, players are transported on a minute schedule from one interview to another and to meetings with partners. Markkanen said that he enjoyed every second at the event organized in Salt Lake City.
Markkanen had achieved something for which he wanted to reward himself.
In the scene of the documentary, Markkanen sits on the bed of an Okinawan hotel room during the basketball World Cup with the captain of Susijeng Sasu Salini with. Salin asks Markkanes, among other things, what he has spent the money he earned on.
Markkanen had already thought of a gift for himself if he was selected for the All Star match one day.
– Two years ago, I had told Verna that when I got to the All Star game, I would buy myself an Audemars Piguet watch.
Having said this, Salin almost immediately asked Markkanes about the price of the watch.
– Six numbers. Is it accurate enough, Markkanen laughed at Salini.
Even during his rookie year, Markkanen never thought he would put money into watches.
– Some of the players presented their watches. Of course I asked how much they cost. After hearing the price, I said I’m not buying. Way too expensive.
– Yes, that money had to be enjoyed somehow and these watches were something that interested me. These also feel precious when you put them on your wrist.
Markkanen reveals his wild goal
Markkanen has said numerous times in his career that he does not feel pressure from outside. He himself feels that he sets even tougher expectations for his own playing career. He hasn’t been very public about these things.
When talking with Isä-Peka at Pyynik in Tampere, the conversation initially turns to the dreams of Markkanen’s youth. Already at that time, the goals of the Finnish superstar were high.
– His goal was not to get to the NBA. His goal is to be the best in the world. At the time, it was a little funny that the boy was going to try. It doesn’t laugh so terribly anymore. I think it’s a pretty good goal, says father-Pekka.
Markkanen admits that the goal set as a teenager is still interesting. Now he has found a new goal alongside it, which motivates him to work hard every day.
– I think it’s good to try to be the best athlete in Finland, regardless of the sport. Why not give it a try. What’s the worst thing that can happen, Markkanen says and looks at his father.
– It is quite an ambitious goal. However, we have had SpongeBob Nurmi and partners along the way, Pekka Markkanen continues.
A historic deal with the Jazz
At least in terms of salary income, Markkanen is fast on his way to becoming the greatest Finnish athlete of all time.
August 7 was marked in Finnish sports history with capital letters. At that time, Markkanen signed an extension with the Utah Jazz. The huge contract will bring Markkanen 238 million dollars over five seasons.
The agreement entered into force immediately. It replaced a roughly $18 million contract for the upcoming season.
– The future of the family and others is now secured. 238 is a really nice reading, said Markkanen after accepting Jazz’s contract terms.
In addition to the money, the gigantic contract brings Markkanen enormous appreciation. In the NBA, the value of the contract directly tells what kind of player the Finn is considered to be.
At the same time, the magnifying glass used to monitor Markkanen’s playing also grows significantly.
For the past two seasons, Markkanen was severely underpaid by NBA standards compared to his game performances.
Now Markkanes has a contract according to his playing skills, but for the Jyväskylä native, it means that the amount of work and motivation will only increase.
– Working out is also an addiction. It gives you an incredibly good feeling. I always want to surpass myself again.
– It’s nice to be able to play against the best in the world, but I think it’s really cool how in sports and in all other areas of life you can surpass your current records. I think it’s the coolest.