NBA All-Star poised to show off at home for EuroBasket

Markkanen's home country of Finland is one of the hosts of the 2025 EuroBasket tournament, and the Utah Jazz forward showed out for the home fans on Wednesday. He scored 28 points and sank five three-pointers as the Finnish team defeated their rivals, Sweden, 93-90.

Finland starts the tournament with a 1-0 record, having gone 4-0 in warm-up games. Markkanen put up 48 points in Finland's first game against Belgium, shooting 17-for-24 from the field and making seven three-pointers. In the follow-up, he scored 31 points in just 23 minutes and shot 8-for-12.

In his first game against Poland, Markkanen exploded for 42 points, showing a return to the production he showed in 2022-23 when he averaged 25.6 points, made his first All-Star team and won Most Improved Player. Last season, Markkanen's numbers declined to 19 points per game on 42.3  percent shooting while he played only 47 games, a rough season all around.

The difference is that the Utah Jazz have been tanking for the last two seasons, to the point they drew a $100K fine for benching Markkanen while he was healthy. Now, Finland is hosting the preliminary games for Group B, and Markkanen is on a mission to take home a medal.

In 2022, Markkanen led the Finns to their first EuroBasket quarterfinal appearance since 1967 by scoring 43 points in a win over Croatia. For the tournament, he averaged 27.9 points and 8.1 rebounds and shot 54.2 percent. That immediately preceded his breakout NBA season.

Markkanen's return to dominance is great news for Finland. It might also be great news for the Utah Jazz.