Former UtahMBB player HannoMottola works as an assistant coach at the hba_marsky and for the Finnish men’s national team. The lessons he learned in the ’90s are shaping what he’s doing now. TakeNote Susijengi
The former University of Utah player works as an assistant coach at the Helsinki Basketball Academy and for the Finnish men’s national team. The lessons he learned in the ’90s are shaping what he’s doing now.
And even as Möttölä is becoming an increasingly crucial cog in the growth of the game in his home country — serving now as an assistant coach both for the same Helsinki Basketball Academy program that he graduated from, as well as with Finland’s men’s national basketball team — there is also some inherent degree of resignation which comes with knowing that all of the players under your watch are now too young to have seen you in action live, their exposure to your exploits coming...
OK, to be fully transparent, the 6-foot-10 giant is not out on a field terrorizing quarterbacks — Möttölä likes to play NFL Pick ’Em. Yes, Möttölä and some other ex-Utes stay in contact. He probably talks to Andre Miller and Michael Doleac the most. Jazz assistant coach Alex Jensen is a bit harder to get a hold of, given the demands of his job. Möttölä is happy to see Chris Burgess on the Utes’ staff now. And Phil Cullen, an employee of the San Antonio Spurs, got in touch during the recently-concluded EuroBasket tournament in Prague.
“We were three and a half minutes away from winning the national championship,” Möttölä says simply. “It’s a game tape I still haven’t watched.” An eight-hour practice session as punishment for losing to the No. 2-ranked team in the country? That’s just how it went sometimes for those Utes teams. The Helsinki Basketball Academy, where Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen played and ex-University of Utah star Hanno Möttölä is an assistant coach, opened new facilities in 2021.
Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen has a jersey hanging at the Helsinki Basketball Academy in Finland, where he played for two years. “Even if 95 out of 100 are not going to be world-class, there’s that chance. We need to cater to them and take care of them for a couple more years. That’s the reason we started HBA, to give talented, young players a chance. The reason why we have HBA is to develop men’s and women’s national team players. That’s the sole goal,” Möttölä said. “… So we changed things a lot and put a lot of resources into coaching. It’s been good for us for the last 10 years. We’ve been on the rise.
“Probably towards the end of his first year here, you start figuring, ‘This guy is extremely special,’” Möttölä said. Yes, shooting remains his singular elite talent, a skill “that separates him from 90% of the basketball players in the world.” However, he’s also capable of putting the ball on the floor, of driving the lane and drawing defenders, and, point-forward style, locating teammates and setting them up for success.
Markkanen needs to keep working to get to that next level. Möttölä has no doubt that he will, having seen that process play out from the day the youngster arrived at Helsinki Basketball Academy.
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