The host city of the NBA All-Star Game has a Finnish favorite. On Saturday evening, a skills competition will be held, where Markkanen will participate in three-point throws.
Salt Lake City
Enough mention Finland, and Johan starts a song of praise. However, it is impossible to translate it into Finnish: “The Finnisher! Marksman! Lauri Bird!”
“He’s such a tough guy, I’d let him hang out with my girlfriend. He’s earned it,” pro-Utah Jazz attorney Jaden Thornley said late Friday night.
Basketball The NBA All-Star Game will be played on Sunday at the Utah Jazz’s home arena in Salt Lake City, and the starting lineup Lauri Markkanen thanks to this, the host city has its own big favorite on the parquet.
On these streets, the name of a Finn arouses greater enthusiasm than the sound king of star selections, a living legend LeBron James.
“No one believed that we would have a star player, but it is what it is! He is our heart and soul. We could expect something from him, but not this kind of full superstar mode,” Thornley marveled at Markkanen’s transformation after he arrived in Utah for this season from Cleveland.
Thornley was throwing the ball into the basket set up on the terrace area of the techno bar by his friend, a handyman by Dean Bouchever with.
Jaden Thornley (foreground) and Dean Bouchever shoot baskets at The Gateway entertainment district in Salt Lake City on Friday.
“Lauri got on a ship that we really tried to sink, but he raised it to the surface,” Bouchever said, referring to the fact that the Jazz sold their entire starting lineup last season but still managed to do well.
The two guessed that with their good booking shifts in the coming years, Jazz’s leadership will be able to build a championship team around the 25-year-old Markkanen before long.
“He is a man, a myth and a legend”, a local Curtis Hess said while looking for an extension on the bar streets of Salt Lake City.
Skywalked alongside Cole Anderson said that he had noticed Markkanen’s modest and polite nature, which he knew how to make Finnishness stand out.
“Does this season make him any more puffy?”
To Markkasen the biggest thanks for the fact that the Jazz beat all expectations, played a sensational fall and are still fighting for a playoff spot. It brought a well-deserved selection to the all-star match and is one of the greatest achievements of Finnish team sports.
It’s perfect to celebrate at a brewery called Kiitos Brewing on the south side of the city center. The faucet has a drawer.
The founder of the place has Finnish ancestry, but the bartender on duty doesn’t recognize the city’s Finnish hero by name. Markkanen is hardly a regular customer here, since he has never drunk alcohol.
In one vertical table, an American man states that he got married in Espoo in 1995, but he doesn’t know anything about basketball.
The corner table sucks. Philip Padilla and Vanessa Robles wearing Jazz fan shirts. They have just come from the celebrity show match that is part of the star weekend. Padilla, a construction industry driver, visits Jazz and Markkas on average once a month.
“It’s interesting how in his previous teams he was mostly a tall guy who could throw. Now if you try to guard him with a three-point arc, he drives to the basket, creates space himself and finishes from close.”
Vanessa Robles said she wears a Utah Jazz fan shirt just for Philip Padilla’s pleasure. “All I know about Markkanes is that he’s cute.”
The Utah Jazz the local radio announcer of the matches David Locke mused earlier in the week on his podcast that NBA All-Star Weekend is the fourth biggest event any American city could dream of hosting. According to him, only the American football Super Bowl and the national conventions of the country’s two main parties, which take place every four years, are ahead.
Locke ignored the Winter Olympics, which Salt Lake City hosted in 2002 and will bid again in 2030 or 2034. Everyone in the city Friday night said the NBA All-Star Game is the biggest event since the Olympics. It was last played in Salt Lake City in 1993.
“This is huge. We are not used to such big things here. It’s great that this brings in money and tourists,” Padilla said.
of Salt Lake City the population was estimated to swell by ten percent over the weekend, as the metropolitan area has approximately 1.2 million inhabitants and as many as 120,000 guests were expected.
A large slice of the visitors, however, are skiers who take advantage of the long weekend – Monday is Presidents’ Day, a national holiday.
Even so, the city also attracts basketball fans to Kukkuroitain, who do not intend to go to the all-star game. The arena can accommodate around 18,300 spectators.
It was already crowded on Friday. The taxi stand at the airport was completely blocked, hotel prices were out of control and the bar streets were unusually busy.
NBA didn’t sell just admission tickets to the all-star game, but offered various experience packages that included it for the lowest price of $1,399. Resale services, however, showed only match tickets for a good 400 dollars on Friday.
Saturday night’s skills competition, where Markkanen participates in three-point throws and where the donkey race gathers the most attention, is almost as expensive fun as the star match itself.
But if it’s enough to see the superstars in a more mundane setting, you can watch Saturday’s practice for the cheapest price of 50 dollars. Many also tip toe them at the entrance of the player hotel.
The skills competition of the NBA star weekend will be held on Sunday morning at 3 o’clock Finnish time. The all-star match is on Monday morning Finnish time. Captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo will divide the players into their teams at 2:30. The match starts at 3:30.
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