Lauri Markkanen explains how his military service can benefit his basketball career / News - Basketnews.com

Lauri Markkanen thinks his experience in the Finnish army will help him emphasize his leadership role as an athlete.

Credit: Lauri Markkanen Credit Lauri Markkanen

Lauri Markkanen is in his second season with the Utah Jazz. The first was a smashing success as he made the All-Star game, averaging 25.6 points and almost 8.6 rebounds per night. He won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

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This season, the former seventh overall pickis averaging 23.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game for a Jazz team that is 12th in the Western Conference.

His military service last summer helped his resiliency and made him deal with different situations. Finnish citizens are obligated to serve in the country's military before they turn 30. Markkanen, 26, originally committed to serve during the summer of 2022, but his former team (Cleveland) was in contention for the Eastern Conference playoffs. For six months, he trained with other Finnish athletes, camped and learned how to perform many tasks.

"It was a good experience," Markkanen told Justin Spears of Tucson.com.

"My offseason would've looked a little different if I didn't go. I think in the long run it will really help me emphasize that leadership role and being pushed and sometimes being uncomfortable but still managing being a part of the group.

Obviously, I know how to handle adversity on the basketball court. I've been playing basketball my whole life. I think it was a little different being with stuff I wasn't familiar with and try to figure things out as a group when things get a little hard. In the long term, I think it was a great experience."

The most humbling part of the Finnish military experience for Markkanen was his daily effort to battle the bad weather conditions.

"You wake up in the middle of the night in the woods and the fire has gone out and it snowed in May, so you get out of the tent in your underwear and there's snow on the ground and you're a little cold and there's no excuse with weather. It's not anything crazy, but little things like that made you uncomfortable in certain situations and learning things from (level) zero.

Points this season

46%115,1Points made:115,1Accuracy:46,1%Place in standings:16Record max:154Record min:90Best scorer:Lauri MarkkanenTeamNBAStatisticsSchedule

Like, how to break down a gun, how to clean it. Things I've never done before, but it was cool to see how quickly I could learn stuff when you start from zero and do it every single day. You pick it up real quick and you can do it with your eyes closed," he described.

Markkanen greatly enjoyed being around Finnish hockey players in the NHL and the soccer league who were also serving.

"It was fun to bond with them," he said. "We all had something to share and we're all athletes, some of them professionally overseas as well. Everyone had the same experience working as a team and that made things a lot easier."

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy thinks Markkanen's experience in the military can help his player keep things in perspective.

"He sent me pictures of him sleeping in the tent in the woods, which I don't think is a typical NBA offseason," he said.

"But to be in those moments, he's not Lauri Markkanen, the NBA player; he's Lauri Markkanen, a 26-year-old Finnish guy, and he's with other Finnish guys serving in the military. These guys are propped up in ways that are unique and rightfully so in some ways, but then there's other ways where I think it's easy for us to forget that they're normal people in a lot of ways.

So I think for him to do that in the summer, not that Lauri needed a reality check in any way, I think he came out of that thinking he did the right thing and did what everyone in his country does. He didn't use an out. He's told me plenty of stories and he had a good experience."

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