Chicago Bulls' budding star Lauri Markkanen paid tribute to late United States Senator John McCain by remembering how the latter became one of the most influential figures in his young basketball career. In a Twitter post, Markkanen said that McCain helped him get his visa so he could play in America.
Rest In peace @SenJohnMcCain, I will forever be grateful for you helping a kid from Finland get a visa to live out my dream of playing basketball in the States
— Lauri Markkanen (@MarkkanenLauri) August 26, 2018
Before Markkanen attended the University of Arizona for a year, he had trouble getting his student visa certified by the American embassy in Finland. McCain stepped in and got the situation sorted out (via Yahoo Sports).
“There was some delay in getting him a visa,” McCain told ESPN in 2017. “Obviously he had to have a student visa and there was a question about whether he was a student or not in Finland. I’d like to tell you it was the hardest struggle I ever had. Actually, we just kind of weighed in and said, ‘hey, how about expediting this’. It was not as big a deal as I would like it to be.”
A Vietnam war veteran and former presidential candidate, McCain passed away Saturday due to a brain tumor that he bravely fought through since being diagnosed in 2017. While he obviously had a large influence on politics, Larry Brown Sports also depicts how McCain was an important influence on sports as a whole.
McCain was also a big sports fan who had a profound impact on the sports world during his time in congress. That is the part of his legacy that we would like to explore.
During his political career, McCain had a big hand in the reformation of baseball, boxing, and the UFC, as well as other sports. Matching his conservative ideology, McCain often focused on more fairness and rules to protect athletes.
McCain touched and transformed the lives of many people, including young men like the 21-year-old Markkanen.
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