JYVÄSKYLÄ. From the basketball courts fenced with steel nets, children’s screams, the bouncing of the ball and the sound of iron basketball socks can be heard. A coach under a basketball ring that has seen better days Jari Laine returns balls, just like ten years ago.
A decade ago, middle school age Lauri Markkanen spent all his free time and recess on this Kilpinen school field. Now Markkanen, who has grown into a superstar of the sport, has returned to present his roots from Jyväskylä, and the origins of the story start from school scenes.
– We always came here to play in our free time. There were other playgrounds, but I spent a lot of time here during the school holidays. If you weren’t in Jari’s yard tossing, then here, Markkanen says and pockets the three.
Laine catches the ball that Markkanen dunked and returns it to its former protective path. The duo’s paths crossed in Jyväskylä early on, when the Markkaste family moved from Vantaa to Jyväskylä.
– I still remember when the first message came that the Markkaste family was moving to Jyväskylä. My own son was the same age at the time, so the thought immediately arose that there is a good basketball team here, Laine recalls.
In the end, the Markkasets moved right next door to Laine, and when From Semi Laine and Lauri Markkase became friends, so basket socks were also diligently waved in the neighbor’s yard.
– Of course, even as a little boy, Lauri had such qualities that he could become anything. Most recently, I also coached him in the adult team before Lauri transferred to Mäkelänrinne Sports High School. He was 15 years old, but he was already fully capable of playing men’s Divar, even though he was just at the beginning of his journey.
– It’s amazing to watch Lauri in the national team now. And you’re not ready yet, you can still improve. The best thing here is the journey, Laine continues.
Despite the burning love of basketball, the teachers did not have to drag the young basketball player to the books during recess. Markkanen is known as a conscientious trainee, and he was one when he started school. He wasn’t late for class, even though he was interested in basketball.
Jari Laine also remembers Markkanen as easy to coach, who always did what was agreed upon. The exceptional talent was also revealed in a way that is still a story among young basketball players from Jyväskylä.
– I used to do the kind of 20-minute throwing practice that even the tough league players have done. If you score more than 40 baskets, that’s already a pretty good performance. The second time, Lauri threw close to a hundred baskets. This happened when I was 16, Laine laughs.
The coach and former protégé are clearly still having fun as the two reminisce by shooting baskets on the old school court. Markkanen reminds us what the most important gift of a youth coach has been.
– Yes, the most important thing has probably been that Jari knew how to make playing and training fun. It kept us engaged in the sport, says Markkanen.
Frisbee golf with my son
The fenced asphalt field changes to a path with rhizomes and a pine forest, but the iron basket net sparkles here too. Lauri Markkanen has brought his guests to get to know one of his favorite hobbies, frisbee golf.
– This track in Kinkomaa has become my favorite track. I’d rather go around this twice, when the other tracks here are already so well-worn, Markkanen smiles and looks for a suitable puck in his backpack.
He got to know the sport by accident ten years ago, when his older brother found a special puck in the forest. Little by little, it became clear that it was Frisbee golf and I had to try it.
– I must have been 14 or 15 years old when I threw my first rounds with a copy puck familiar from ultimate. Then I found my first puck in the forest myself, says Markkanen.
Today, Markkanen plays frisbee golf even more ambitiously, but the sport’s greatest importance is still social.
– Maybe the last five years have been such that I’ve already tried to play a slightly better round. But this is an outdoor game that quite a few friends and family members are excited about. Here you can spend time with friends.
If a boy asks to play frisbee golf, I’ll never say no.
Lauri Markkanen
Markkanen’s four-year-old son is the latest to take up the sport Alvar, who often asks to roll. On Kinkomaa’s easy-going track, even a child can handle it.
– It’s getting a little depressing when you see how good a four-year-old’s technique can be. It won’t be many years until he can no longer manage with his brothers, Markkanen grins.
The trip continues to the next launch site. During the walk in the forest, the soul of the cross is not visible. The wind flutters in the trees, Pine cones rustle under your shoes. You don’t see any hunters, only nature and peace are present.
– Yes, I’m recognized here, but it’s always in a good way. You meet boys who don’t even have a phone with them, but have also come to enjoy nature. They say Moro and that’s it, says Markkanen.
A five-time world champion of the sport as a mentor
Lauri Markkanen made headlines right in his first NBA season, when he broke the all-time rookie three-point record. At Kinkomaa’s frisbee golf course, Markkanen shows that throwing can also be done in a completely different sport.
The opening throws are placed under the basket and the putts sink precisely. However, sometimes there is a loud pop when the puck rattles against the pine tree and the goalie has to dig out another puck from his backpack. But it is said to be the salt of the species.
– Oh, is this an instrumental sport? After all, I think the NBA ball is the best ball in the world, but I throw it sometimes too, Markkanen laughs.
Markkanes has carefully selected discs in his backpack and already has three backpacks, one for each home. Despite that, Markkanen says that he still plays more for fun, and doesn’t see throwing as training.
– The great thing about this sport is that you can start playing with one puck, but if you want to start playing the result and try out the properties of different pucks, then you feel that nothing is enough, he states.
For his Frisbeegolf hobby, Markkanen has later received help from the top of the world as well, as his circle of friends includes a five-time world champion of the sport Paul McBeth.
– A couple of years ago, when I started watching frisbee golf tournaments, I realized that Paul is in every video. Then I noticed that we follow each other on Instagram and Paul had already sent a message. I apologized for not answering earlier, I went to watch the tournament at his place and we got to know each other, Markkanen times.
Today, the Finnish basketball giant and the American frisbee golf star are in contact every week. Friends do things together, like anyone else.
– We had a day off in Orlando this season. We went to Universal Studios with Paul to ride the Harry Potter roller coasters and now in the summer he was here at Nokia throwing discs too.
At Nokia, Markkanen and his brother got to tour the top track together with the world champion.
– They say that we lost. But we were really happy that we got a few birdies on the pro course. We thought they would be few and far between, but on one fairway each of the three of us got a birdie. It was a good feeling, Markkanen smiles.
Jyväskylä has everything
After frisbee golf, it’s time to play after-games on the sauna rafts. Time seems to have stopped when Markkanen looks at the central Finnish lake landscape from the deck of the sauna raft. My brother is there Miika and father Pekka. Another brother Eero plays football as a profession and at the same time is in his team’s training.
In the sauna, the Markkasets recall how the brothers spent thousands of hours playing and competing in the yard of their home in Jyväskylä. And no mercy was given in yard games, not even to the youngest of the brothers, Lauri.
– They didn’t let Junnu win there, but they played seriously until the end. When Lauri was just a little boy, quite often he had to go inside humiliated with a drop in his eye. But the sense that one day he wants to show us, Pekka recalls.
And the desire to win can still be seen in the brothers’ characters. Dad got to experience that with his friend when he visited Chicago in the early stages of Lauri’s NBA career.
– Eero and Lauri were at Lauri’s apartment at the same time and we played football inside against them. At first it was joking, but when it started to look like we were going to win, it became real. There wasn’t even a smile left, guys were flying along the walls and things were falling down. It was really true. You realized that winning is really important, Pekka laughs.
Basketball took Markkanen to the world early on, and even though the man is only 25 years old, he has been away from Jyväskylä for nine years already. Today there are three homes, in Helsinki, the United States and of course Jyväskylä.
– Jyväskylä has everything. Koris has taken the world and I enjoy that too, when I get new experiences. But it’s always cool to come back here. Although not all the friends may live here anymore, there are a lot of relatives. And then this nature, Markkanen sighs.
– Today, Helsinki also feels a bit like home. The first years were such that when you came from Chicago to Helsinki, it only felt like home when the car started towards Jyväskylä. Now Helsinki already feels like home, and so does the United States. We honestly have three homes, but Jyväskylä is still the one where I like to spend time the most.
At the beginning of his NBA career, father Pekka lived as Lauri’s helper in Chicago, when everything was still new and wonderful. Nowadays, the whole family sees less often, so summer moments like this in Jyväskylä are really worth it.
– We try to do common things outside the field, so that Lauri can sometimes get out of his public role and be himself. Then we go to the side as a group, and we don’t talk about work matters. That’s the goal every summer, Pekka says.
And even though the brothers and the rest of the family are seen less often, the father encourages his son to enjoy every moment to the fullest.
– There is nothing at the finish line, you should enjoy the journey and not the goal. Now we are certainly living the best years of Lauri’s career, Pekka concludes.