Chicago Bulls star Lauri Markkanen, often compared to Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, admits there's one thing he copied from the German Wunderkind.
In an interview with Uproxx, the 21-year-old forward confirmed that Nowitzki was one of his basketball influences growing up.
“There’s been multiple, obviously, people comparing me to Dirk, but I actually watched some of his film and tried to learn the footwork, and do such unstoppable footwork,” Markkanen said when asked about the particular player he modeled his game after.
“Just with his footwork and just a good shooter, so he’s definitely one of them, but then obviously, I didn’t have too much time, or spending TV time watching games when I was growing up. So it’s mostly like YouTube stuff.”
“At the time, I played the guard position anyways. I mean, got to pick up from LeBron and those guys, watched Kobe Bryant, but I’ve never really had a chance to watch real-time games.”
Markkanen picked the right guy to watch growing up as it is easy to see the similarities between him and Nowitzki. Both guys bring a Euro big man style of play with their combination of size and outside shooting.
He has his work cut out for him if he wants to have a Hall of Fame career like Nowitzki. However, what Markkanen has over Dirk is that he has made a bigger impact in his rookie campaign — something the former MVP agrees to. Nowitzki only averaged 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game during his first year in the league.
Markkanen was one of the few bright spots for the Bulls last season, which also happened to be his rookie season. After averaging 15.2 points and 7.5 rebounds nightly, he is looking to come back even stronger as the Bulls try to make a push for one of the Eastern Conference playoff spots.
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