ESPOO (Finland) - It might be the second time that Lauri Markkanen has played a FIBA EuroBasket in Finland, but the excitement and novelty of playing in his own country have not worn off.
This summer, the Utah Jazz star prepares to electrify the hometown crowd in Tampere, just as he did back in 2017 during the Group Phase in Helsinki, when he averaged 22.6 points and provided highlights aplenty, before concluding with a solid 19.5 points and 5.7 rebounds as Finland exited at the Round of 16.
Markkanen followed that up at EuroBasket 2022 by posting 23.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, as Finland finished a credible seventh.
"Playing for your country and playing for your national team is an unreal feeling," Markkanen said. "It's not like anything else. You always take a lot of pride playing for your country, and it's the best thing ever.
"It's always very special playing in front of your own fans, and especially when it's a EuroBasket. I'm fortunate enough to be able to do it a second time now, and the first time was an unreal experience, so I'm expecting nothing less than that.
"It's going to be an awesome week in Finland for sure."
Markkanen has enjoyed home comforts during Finland's preparation for EuroBasket, with three home games, as they have blitzed their way to a flawless four wins out of four, by an average winning margin of 19.5 points.
In those contests, Markkanen has averaged an astonishing 31.7 points a game with two 40-point explosions showcasing just how breathtaking he is to watch as a fan, and how brutally devastating he has been to his opponents.
"It's always very special playing in front of your own fans, and especially when it's a EuroBasket."
Markkanen hopes to put on his own personal offensive fireworks display to captivate the fans in Tampere, knowing that, while he's in a rare club to have experienced two EuroBasket tournaments at home, this opportunity might not come around again.
"You can't be expecting this opportunity to come along a second time," Markkanen admits.
"So, you try to take full advantage of the opportunity that we have right now and keep reminding yourself that this might not come along again. So, we try to get everything out of it."
And getting everything out of it would signify finishing as high as possible, with the accredited media even predicting Finland to be the biggest positive surprise at the tournament, garnering 23.1 percent of the votes, as they think the Susijengi could surpass its best finish, where you would have to go back to 1967, when the Nordic nation placed in sixth.
"I would say the biggest strength of our team is the versatility," Markkanen says of the team. "We have a lot of big guys who can play in different positions, but also guards that can do multiple different things. And, like I said, just we've spent so much time together, and I think that's going to be a strength."
As they enter their 18th FIBA EuroBasket, Finland has never won a medal. However, a seventh-place finish in 2022, followed by a second FIBA Basketball World Cup appearance since 2014, has the fans believing.
But Markkanen remains focused on one task at a time. Sweden is their first obstacle at the Tampere Deck Arena, with Great Britain, Montenegro, Lithuania, and Germany to follow.
"There's a lot of good teams in the tournament obviously, [but] I'm not even looking to the Round of 16 yet," Markkanen commented.
"We're worried about the Group Phase. And every team is capable of beating anybody on any day. So, we have to go day by day, and Sweden is obviously a good team.
"We start with them, and it's always a battle with us. So, I would say, Sweden is our first big opponent."
It begins with Sweden, with unlimited possibilities for where its path could lead. But for Markkanen - and Finland - this is a golden ticket to surpass what the squad achieved in 1967, to go even further than that.
FIBA