Lauri Markkanen Gives Blunt Reaction to Jazz's $100K Fine

The Utah Jazz got hit with a major fine this week following their decisions surrounding sitting out Lauri Markkanen.

Following Markkanen's absence vs. the Washington Wizards due to "low back injury management", the NBA dealt out a $100,000 fine the Jazz's way for violating the league's Player Participation Policy, failing to make their star forward active for their road contest in Washington, as well as several other previous games in which he was out of the fold.

Utah Jazz have been fined $100,000 for violating the Player Participation Policy when the team failed to make Lauri Markkanen available for a game on March 5. pic.twitter.com/hKbD9c7UrX
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) March 12, 2025

Markkanen has since been activated and back in the lineup, but when it comes to his reaction about the team's fine, he kept his thoughts short and sweet on the matter.

"Nothing really," Markkanen said describing his reaction. "I was getting ready to go play in the game. It's a league matter. I don't really need to get into specifics on that. I was locked in on the game, and that's when I found out."

Markkanen was back from a nine-game absence in their most recent showing against the Memphis Grizzlies –– one that ultimately ended in a 122-115 loss to take the Jazz to their seventh-straight loss in a row. In his 28 minutes on the floor, he finished with 14 points and six rebounds during his first game back.

However, when it comes to the Jazz star's availability moving forward, Markkanen states that he and the team are taking his back injury "day by day"

"We'll go game by game to see how the back's feeling," Markkanen said. "Just living game-by-game, day-by-day at this point... You expect to play every game. You hope you're healthy enough to do that. That didn't happen... The goal is to play 82 every year, so, it's not what I expected.

Markkanen has remained a vital piece in the Jazz lineup when healthy this season despite his up-and-down availability and consistenty, averaging 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 32 minutes a night, though only appearing in 44 games during the 2024-25 campaign.

The 27-year-old seems to be geared up to play a solid amount down the final stretch of the season, but considering Markkanen's extensive absences across this season, don't be shocked if Utah still opts to lean on the conservative side of playing him with just under 20 games to go in the season.

Markkanen has been dealing with lingering back issues across the entire year, and the last thing the Jazz brass would want is to see their star player go down with more injury problems in games that don't matter for much of anything besides final lottery odds placement.

The Utah Jazz become the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention this season 👀

The Jazz haven't reached the playoffs since 2021-22. pic.twitter.com/tjuS37TtfV
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) March 11, 2025

In the meantime, Markkanen is off the injury report, and seemingly prepared to end his third season in Salt Lake on a high note.

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