Lauri Markkanen made a surprise appearance on a disc golf course last weekend. The Utah Jazz star even teamed up with a stranger to play a full 18-hole round. After the game, his disc golf partner shared insights from their experience on Reddit under the username u/Cautious-Hurry6395.
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The duo had signed up for the game separately and were randomly paired together. The Reddit user knew Markkanen’s full name from the beginning. However, his admitted lack of knowledge in other sports left him unaware of his partner’s superstar status in the NBA.
The 27-year-old Jazz forward also maintained a humble demeanor throughout their game. Rather than discussing his basketball career, he focused entirely on his disc golf performance. He did so brilliantly. According to his partner, Markkanen’s impressive skills made him a standout player on the course.
Although they went their separate ways after the game, Markkanen‘s down-to-earth persona left a lasting impression on the Reddit user. He later Googled his partner out of curiosity. The results left him starstruck. He realized he had spent hours playing disc golf with an NBA All-Star.
The Redditor shared this unexpected encounter with the NBA community. He posted,
“I played disc golf this past weekend and ended up paired with another solo player. Since I don’t really follow sports, I didn’t know who he was until we started chatting. It was Lauri Markkanen. He is incredibly humble and down-to-earth, and he absolutely rips it in the disc golf course. We played the full 18 and then went our separate ways. I Googled his name afterwards and was retrospectively starstruck. It was cool to talk with him as a fellow human rather than an NBA superstar.”
This post also contained footage of Markkanen throwing a disc from a tee pad toward the basket. It captured him in spectacles, a white t-shirt, black three-fourth pants, and red sneakers.
His mastery over disc golf should not surprise NBA fans. It’s practically a family tradition. The Markkanens have always competed in disc golf whenever they could. They even turned it into an offseason ritual. Markkanen even discussed this during a 2017 CBS Sports interview with Matt Norlander. He said,
“That’s the big thing with me and my family; we compete a lot back home.”
His passion for the sport hasn’t waned over the years. He is consequently often spotted at various disc golf courses. NBA fans seem to appreciate this side of him and hope it sticks around for years to come.
