From a yellow jersey plea to money ball woes, Markkanen reflects on 3-point contest choices

SALT LAKE CITY — Lauri Markkanen was looking to appear a bit more bright at All-Star Weekend ... literally.

Markkanen asked the league to use the Jazz's infamous yellow highlighter jerseys for the 3-point contest Saturday. Markkanen is an enigma when it comes to the less-than-popular uniforms; he loves them and has said many times they are his favorites among the Jazz's many options, even if he won't be wearing them again this season.

After wearing the jerseys just once — a blowout loss in Portland in November — the Jazz asked the league to have them taken off their uniform schedule, shelving the jerseys for at least the rest of the season.

So Markkanen figured since he was one of the few who actually liked the design, he could send them off on a national stage.

Unfortunately for the Jazz forward, the NBA wanted all the participants to wear the city edition jerseys. So, purple it was. Fans might have preferred it; Markkanen was disappointed, though. He even said, tongue-in-cheek, that was partially to blame for not winning the title.

The other thing that kept him from hoisting the trophy: those pesky money ball racks.

Markkanen tied Tyrese Haliburton for the most total makes in the first round at 19 — more than Damian Lillard, Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young, the three players who made it to the final round (Haliburton was eliminated on a tiebreaker round).

The problem? Markkanen made just two shots on his money ball rack and that led to an early exit.

So would Markkanen like the league to eliminate that darned money ball rack in the future?

"Based on how it went this year, yeah," Markkanen said. "It might be different next year. Hopefully I get to do it again. It's easy to be smart afterward."

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. For example, he moved the money ball rack from the final rack to the second one after struggling at the end of last year's contest in Salt Lake City. In Indy, it was just the opposite. He was perfect on the final rack, and his money ball rack was the only spot where he didn't make at least four shots.

"I made my decision based on last year because of how I felt at the end," he said. "So I wanted to put the balls in the favorite spot and be shooting with fresh legs and kind of get the rhythm on the first rack. Practice rounds went really well with those, so I don't regret it at all."

So will Markkanen be back next year to try again in what is fast becoming the premier event at All-Star Weekend? He's open to it.

"It's always a privilege to be a part of All-Star Weekend, so the opportunity presents itself, yes," Markkanen said. "I feel like I got kind of going at the end and that was really fun to spend time with those guys, and go out there and compete and have fun, so of course if the opportunity comes."

Even with the trip to Indianapolis, Markkanen said the All-Star break served as a nice recharge for him and the team leading into the final stretch of the season. The Jazz have 26 games left and are 2.5 games back for the final play-in spot in the West.

"We haven't talked about where we need to end up but we want to win games, and I think that's what everybody's goal is; and that's what we're here to do," Markkanen said. "It's frustrating to lose those couple of games before the break. … We are eager to get back and get back to work, and hopefully turn things around."

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