Basketball|Lauri Markkanen faced Petteri Koponen.
Basketball star Lauri Markkanen represented by the NBA team Utah Jazz opened their pre-season practice matches by clearly defeating the New Zealand Breakers in their home arena 116–87. The match had a strong Finnish color, as the Breakers named one of Finland’s all-time basketball greats, like Markkanen Petteri Koponen in the summer as head coach.
After the match, Markkanen and Koponen posed for a joint photo.
“What a special evening. We had many wonderful moments together on the field. Today I tried to think how to stop him (it can’t be done). Thank you @MarkkanenLauri and good luck for the season @utahjazz,” Koponen wrote on his X account with the picture.
Koponen, 36, ended his playing career after the 2022 European Championship. In the summer, he was part of the coaching staff of the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA summer league.
Markkanen, 27, who is starting his eighth NBA season and third season in Utah, described Kopo as one of his youth role models.
“It was an unreal moment when I got to debut in the national team with him (in 2017). He was a great leader for our team,” said Markkanen According to the Deseret News.
“Who would have guessed that we would actually meet on the NBA floor?”, Markkanen continued.
Markkanen played only 15 minutes against the Breakers, but was still his team’s second best scorer with 13 points. of Utah Johnny Juzang scored 19 points.
Utah will play five practice games over the next two weeks. In their NBA opener on October 23, the team will face the Memphis Grizzlies, whose assistant coach he serves as Tuomas Iisalo.
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