Coming from an athletic family where his parents are both professional basketball players, Lauri Markkanen after one year of successful college basketball abandoned the remaining three years of college to declare for the NBA draft. He was then selected in the first round as the 7th pick in the 2017 draft by Minnesota Timberwolves but was later signed by the Chicago Bulls later that year and has continued to bloom in his career with the team.
Lauri Markkanen’s Bio
Lauri Markkannen was born with the full name Lauri Elias Markkannen on May 22, 1997, to parents Pekka and Rikka Markkanen in Vantaa, Finland but he grew up in Jyvaskyla, a city 136 miles away from his birthplace. His father, Pekka Markkanen, played basketball at the University of Kansas but was not able to play professionally and his mother, Rikka Markkanen, played actively for the Finland national team.
It is also worth knowing that his brothers were not left out of the family sports profession as his eldest brother Eero, is a professional soccer player who plays for the AIK, a Swedish soccer team but is currently on a loan to Randers FC and his second brother Mikka was a professional basketball player before injury took the best of him and ended his career abruptly.
Lauri attended Helsinki Academy in Helsinki, Finland and upon graduation from high school, he moved from Finland to the United States, where he attended the prestigious University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, and graduated in 2017.
Basketball Career
Lauri Markkanen started his basketball career when he moved to the United States in 2015 and after one year of playing on his college basketball team at the University of Arizona, he decided to go straight for the NBA draft. He was picked by Minnesota Timberwolves with the seventh pick in the first round of the draft. After which he was traded with basketball players Zach Lavine and Kris Dunn for Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton, to the Chicago Bulls, who officially signed him in July.
Lauri made his debut for the Bulls on October 19, 2017, scoring a total of 17 points all in his first match and a week later, he scored ten 3-pointers which set an NBA record for most 3-pointers that have ever been recorded in the first three games of an NBA career. The player on December 30, recorded career-high scores of 32 points with 7 rebounds in his team’s victory of 119 – 107 against the Indiana Pacers.
Starting the new year, with vigor, Lauri Markkanen on January 18, played an impressive game, recording career-high scored points of 33 points in 46 minutes in his team’s victory over the New York Knicks and he also got named as the second 7 foot player to make a 3 pointer 8 times in a game behind Dirk Nowitzki. Also in January, he recorded a total of 17 points against the Milwaukee Bucks and upon scoring these points, he reached a total of 721 points in his professional career, breaking records of Hanno Mottola, a Finnish player who scored a total of 715 career points in the NBA hereby making him the second Finnish player with such high scores on the NBA.
Lauri Markkanen’s effort was crowned with success as he was named the NBA All-Rookie First Team on May 22, 2018.
Is The NBA Star Married Or Have A Girlfriend?
As we look into Lauri Markkanen’s personal life, we find that the NBA star is currently not married but he is in a longtime romantic relationship with Verna Aho, a Finnish lady who also happens to be the mother of his son, Verna, whom the couple welcomed early this year in January. As things seem to be going pretty well for the pair, who knows? a walk down the aisle might just be possible in the nearest future.
Other Facts About The NBA Star
Lauri Markkanen is a guy graciously and gigantically built with a height of 7 ft 0 in approximately 2.13 m and is said to have a weight of 104 kg which is approximately 240 lbs.
Lauri Markkanen is currently signed with the Chicago Bulls where he has a salary base of $4,536,120 which is set to rise to $5,300,400 in the next season with the Bulls. At the moment from his current earnings, the player’s net worth is estimated to be around $2 million.
