NBA: James impressed by Markkanen

On Wednesday night, Lauri Markkanen fulfilled a childhood dream by competing against LeBron James. After that he also had some praise for the Finnish rookie.

“For me, a dream has come true today,” said Markkanen, who has been working from the Bulls to 7th grade. LeBron was my favorite player. Going up against him is special. He’s pretty hard to defend.”

James and his Cavaliers won the game against Chicago, but Markkanen was still able to convince and scored 19 points, 17 of them in the first half. James (34 points and 13 assists) was also impressed by the 19-year-old’s performance.

“He’s very confident,”said James.”I’ve seen him play a lot of games in Arizona. He’s worn my shoes a couple of times. I like that one. He can throw very well and will only get better. The best thing for him is that he’s got a lot of opportunities right now. He can make mistakes and learn from them, because he gets a lot of play time. He’s good, and it looks like he’s learning very fast.”

Markkanen was originally intended to be introduced a little slower, but since the Power Forwards Bobby Portis (suspended) and Nikola Mirotic (broken jaw) both failed, he has been used on average in 34 minutes (16.3 points, 9.3 rebounds).