Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

John McCain helped ensure Lauri Markkanen played college basketball

Golden State Warriors v Phoenix Suns

PHOENIX, AZ - FEBRUARY 10: U.S. Senator John McCain attends the NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center on February 10, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns defeated the Warriors 112-88. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Getty Images

As the nation continues to mourn the death of Senator John McCain, we are getting more and more stories from people whose lives he touched.

One of those people is Lauri Markkanen, the Finnish-born former Arizona Wildcat that is currently heading into his second season with the Chicago Bulls.

The story goes like this: Markkanen was having trouble getting a visa from the American Embassy in Finland. Knowing that McCain was a big Wildcat fan, the athletic department reached out to their state senator to request some help expediting the process.

“There was some delay in getting him a visa,” McCain told ABC News back in 2017. “Obviously he had to have a student visa and there was a question about whether he was a student or not in Finland. I’d like to tell you it was the hardest struggle I ever had. Actually, we just kind of weighed in and said, ‘hey, how about expediting this’. It was not as big a deal as I would like it to be.”

The rest is history. Markkanen would go on to average 15.6 points and 7.2 boards in his one season in Tucson before getting selected with the 7th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.