After a few years of being labeled as a “bust”, it seems like Lauri Markkanen finally found his groove. After being traded to the Utah Jazz, the Finnish forward broke out as one of the best players for the team. He's a big reason why Utah was in the playoff hunt right until the end of the season. However, now that the season is over, Lauri Markkanen is headed back to Finland for something important, his military service.
Plenty of countries around the world require their men to enter mandatory military service for a prescribed period. In the case of Lauri Markkanen, his military service for Finland will go from six months to a year, according to Salt Late Tribune. Here's Markannen's thoughts on his upcoming service time.
“Yeah, it’s something that we have to do before we’re 30, so I just figured if we’re not going to be playing in the postseason this year, then it’s going to be good time to do it now instead of just postponing it and then eventually have to do it in a time that wouldn’t work so well for me,” (Jazz star) Lauri Markkanen said. “So I decided to do it now and we’ll see how it goes. I’ve obviously never been, so we’ll see how that looks.”
Markkanen also said that he's going somewhere with a lot of athletes: presumably a special area for athletes in the same boat as the Jazz star. Due to the duration of the off-season and the length of the mandatory service, it's possible that Markannen will need to do this again next year.
The Jazz are in good hands even after the departure of their main stars, thanks to Lauri Markkanen. Utah fans will wait eagerly from his return from the military service.
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