Lauri Markkanen reacts after being selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the seventh pick overall during the NBA basketball draft, Thursday, June 22, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

 Frank Franklin II

LaVar Ball and his basketball-playing sons weren’t the only famous athletic family attending the draft.

Markkanen sat at his green-room table with his father Pekka, a former player at Kansas who played professionally in Europe. Larui’s older brother, Eero, was also there.

The 25-year-old Eero has actually been the biggest star in the family back in Finland, a forward for the Swedish soccer club AIK and for the Finnish national team.

But Antti-Jussi Sipila, of Finnish broadcast network YLE Finland, said Lauri might now become the most popular Markkanen now that he’s become an NBA lottery pick.Β 

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