Lauri Markkanen has been in the NBA for eight years now, and he's had his most success while playing for the Utah Jazz. However, even with his NBA success, he hasn't forgotten where he came from. With the EuroBasket tournament, Markkanen did not have a second thought to represent his home country Finland.
EuroHoops confirmed that Markkanen will lead the Finnish team during the tournament, where they hope to compete for the championship. As it turns out, Markkanen is the only NBA player playing for the Finnish team (Fun fact: Markkanen is one of only three Finnish players to play in the NBA, with the other two being Hanno Mattola and Erik Murphy, neither of whom had nearly the same success Markkanen did).
Even though Markkanen is not the team captain, he has gone on public record with some pretty inspirational words that make him look like a leader that the squad needs. More than that, this is not The Finnisher's first time playing for Finland's basketball team.
Before coming to America, Markkanen made his mark (no pun intended) for the FIBA Under-18 and UNder-20 tournaments in 2015 and 2016 respectively. He was then elevated to the senior national team for the EuroBasket tournament in 2017 and has since played for them in EuroBasket again in 2022 and FIBA in 2023.
There's no telling what kind of legacy Markkanen will leave behind in the NBA, but it's pretty clear he will go down as a Finnish legend. There should be absolutely no questions about that.
Markkanen isn't the only Jazzman in EuroBasket
While Markkanen will spend his August at EuroBasket, he will be joined by one of his new Jazz teammates this coming season: Jusuf Nurkic. While Markkanen will represent Finland, Nurkic will represent his home country, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
big man’s looking ready for @EuroBasket 🇧🇦#TakeNote | @bosnianbeast27 pic.twitter.com/fVweMECSGR
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) July 28, 2025
Like Markkanen, Nurkic also has his success playing in the FIBA Tournament. Before Markkanen showed up, Nurkic also made a name for himself in the FIBA tournaments, where he was MVP of the under-18 and under-20 tournaments in 2012 and 2014, respectively. He has since appeared on the senior team in 2013, 2017, and 2022. It's clear all these years later how much this matters to him, too.
Before this coming season starts, it will be cool to see the Jazz get legitimate representation in one of the most popular international basketball tournaments ever created. More than that, though, it is cool
to see these two Jazzmen going against each other, mere weeks before they play together in Salt Lake City.