(The original article was published on November 27. The author is Rohlin, Melissa of Fox Sports. The content of the article does not represent the translator’s point of view)

At the latest post-match press conference, markanin took off his baseball cap and threw off his golden curly hair, just like shooting a shampoo advertisement. “Which is better?” Malcanin asked the reporter’s opinion and then put on his hat, “is this better?”

Malcanin is not used to the sudden surge in popularity and will ask reporters for suggestions on modeling. In the face of a private interview, he smiled happily. When talking about issues related to personal success, malcanin worried about whether to give his teammates enough respect and repeatedly confirmed whether he emphasized the help of his teammates.

The 25-year-old striker is ushering in an explosive season for jazz. Although the team’s goal is next year’s draft convention, Jazz once topped the list in the West. Obviously, markanin became the best player in the Jazz team, which seemed to break through the barrier of role players overnight and became one of the most surprising players this season.

Nowadays, malcanin even has the opportunity to impact the All-Star, which is his dream for a long time. Until recently, this once illusory dream was getting closer and closer to realization. Marcanin said in an interview with Fox Sports this week: “When I first entered NBA, I didn’t want to be an ordinary player. I want to be an all-star.”

This season, the 2.13-meter forward has evolved into an omnipotent guy. Malcanin’s speed and agility are not inferior to those players of lower height, and the range is comparable to the guard. Big players defend malcanin, he can easily throw away; Small players defend malcanin, he can use the height advantage to face the defensive shot. So far this season, malcanin has averaged 22 points 8.5 rebounds, field goal percentage 52.9%, compared with the 14.8 points 5.7 rebounds in the Cavaliers last season, field goal percentage 44.5%, with a significant improvement.

Malcanin’s ability seems to have been successfully unlocked. He attributed all this to the appreciation of the head coach and the trust of his teammates, including representing Finland in the European Championship this summer to help him keep his best and enter the new season. Jazz new coach will Hardy saw the performance of malcanin when he was playing on behalf of the country, and he believed that he could do something special this season. Hadi said: “They (the Finnish national team) used marcanin as a ball holder, let him play singles, let him cover, let him play without a ball. Therefore, I learned from it that malcanin cannot be limited in the field, allowing him to make some mistakes on the field. Malcanin is a very, very good player, and the combination of his figure, athletic ability and technology is very rare.”

Coach Hardy allowed malcanin to let go of the fight, gave him the freedom to play with his intuition, and got rid of the bondage of position and role to him. All this was put on marcanin, which brought him a complete change. Malcanin said: “It is very interesting to stay with jazz players and staff, and the game every night is full of fun. If you can be happy from the competition, you will naturally be in the best state.”

Malcanin, who has just entered NBA, has a different situation in the past few years. At the draft conference in 2017, the Bull chose marcanin in the seventh order. People at that time expected him to grow like this today, unfortunately, malcanin failed to meet these expectations in the four seasons of playing for the bull.

According to reports, malcanin was dissatisfied with the limited role given by former Bull coach Jim boyron. He felt that he was deprived of the opportunity to play in the middle distance. Even after coach Donovan took over the bull, malcanin clearly expressed his hope for a change and was finally sent to the knight by the bull as part of the three-party deal.

Looking back at that time, malcanin took the responsibility that things did not develop as expected. Marcanin said, “Of course, I hope I can fight in the bull. Chicago is a great city and a basketball Holy Land. Unfortunately, I didn’t play it for many reasons. I often looked at myself in the mirror and found that I was no longer the 20-year-old myself. As a person, when he grows up, he looks at things from different angles and plays games in different ways. As for the competition, I have stronger physical quality and richer experience. I know how to read different situations in the field. All this just didn’t work in the previous team.”

After finishing the bull’s career, malcanin played a season in the Knight. In September this year, the Cavaliers packed marcanin, Sexton and a bunch of picks to the jazz and returned to the three-time All-Star player Michelle. The Jazz had already sent away Michelle, and in July they also traded the best defensive player of three times, Gobel. This season was intended to be completely ruined. Look at the Jazz squad list. There is really nothing to expect before the start of the season. Malcanin was just a good role player. Conley had already passed the peak period, and Clarkson was often ignored, so that a journalist of the jazz mistakenly thought him as a fan last season, in the TV interview, Clarkson, the sixth best Person of the previous year, was interviewed as a fan and asked him, “Have you seen the Jazz game?” Then came Coach Hardy, who was only 34 years old. He was so young that recently Coach Harry said that one of his biggest challenges was to avoid players treating him as a friend.

But somehow, such a group of people gathered together and exerted incredible energy.

Conley’s average assists (7.9) hit a new career high, Clarkson’s average score (19.3) hit a new career high, coach Hardy was recently praised by Clippers Coach Taren Lu as “bringing new things to NBA that have never been seen before”, and malcanin is also playing the best performance in his career.

Marcanin said that everyone found this on the first day of the training camp. When they were sitting in the dressing room, they looked at each other and thought the same idea in their mind: “We have great players and the new season will definitely surprise many people”.

Malcanin took the lead. Recently, he played an eye-catching game against the sun and scored 37 points in 15 of the 18 shots. After that, he scored 25 points and 10 rebounds against the Clippers. At the same time, the defensive side helped his teammates limit Leonard’s score to only 8 points (4 out of 11 shots). After the game, Leonard said of malcanin: “He became better and got more opportunities in jazz. In fact, all this only depends on what kind of player he wants to be.”

Marcanin knew he still had a long way to go. When asked what other aspects could be improved, he soon listed some contents, including outside performance, decision-making, ball control, shooting and defensive skills. Having said that, at the same time, malcanin readily admitted that his game had made great progress. He thinks the biggest difference this season is the health condition. Thanks to the European Championship for bringing his competition to a new height, marcanin said: “My physical condition is the best in my life. During the European Championship, I was with the team all the time and had good diet control. We played five games in seven days, and the high-intensity game helped me better grasp the opportunity on the court.”

From the very beginning, the Jazz teammates noticed the potential of malcanin. They noticed how great markanin was and wanted to give the ball to him, willing to believe him. Now marcanin has ushered in the outbreak, showing the world that an unknown big man plays for a team that is not optimistic. Such a game also deserves everyone’s attention. Coach Hardy said: “There is no doubt that I think marcanin should be selected as an all-star. What he did for the team at both ends of the attack and defense, the game video already shows everything. I know the jazz hasn’t played a live game in the United States this year, but I think people should start to pay attention to him and pay attention to his mode of play, which is reasonable.”

For malcanin, his success in jazz will make his dream come true. Now all the beautiful things are waiting for him not far ahead, and he hopes that all this has just begun. Marcanin said, “I will try my best to exert all my potential on the present. Let’s see.”

Original: Melissa Rohlin

Compile: Li Taibai

Interview with

Characters