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Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg shoots against the New York Knicks during an NBA summer league game Thursday in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Ronda Churchill\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014 Early in the fall of 2025, before Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a> became a first-round draft choice<\/a> and steamrolled opponents in NBA summer league, he stood in front of his Michigan teammates after a sluggish practice and apologized.<\/p>\n Lendeborg\u2019s defense was not good that day, as former Wolverines assistant coach Justin Joyner recalled. So when the team gathered afterward for video review, and head coach Dusty May highlighted Lendeborg\u2019s laziness, he expressed his regrets.<\/p>\n May asked forward Morez Johnson Jr. if he accepted the apology. Johnson didn\u2019t flinch, saying simply, \u201cIf it\u2019s the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYax wasn\u2019t able to take plays off, or he\u2019d get his butt kicked,\u201d said Joyner, now Oregon State\u2019s head coach. \u201cWe had good players who would challenge him every day.\u201d<\/p>\n This offers a tidy snapshot of Lendeborg\u2019s improbable basketball journey, from barely noticed high school player to the Golden State Warriors\u2019<\/a> most tantalizing draft pick in years. Lendeborg made a striking impression in summer league<\/a>, showing off his all-around game\u00a0\u2014 gobbling up rebounds, dribbling downcourt in transition, passing to open teammates, draining 3-point shots.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n He also occasionally blended into the background, losing focus for stretches\u00a0\u2014 repeating a pattern dating to all three of his college stops.<\/p>\n Lendeborg\u2019s diverse skills, and the work habits needed to maintain them, were a long time in the making. He grew up in Ohio and New Jersey playing more baseball (ultimately as a center fielder) than basketball, and really playing video games more than anything. It took an emotional plea from his mom<\/a>, Yissel Raposo, for Lendeborg to get his act together in high school.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg with teammates prior to the start of an NBA summer league game Thursday in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Ronda Churchill\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n Raposo, who once played for the national team in her native Dominican Republic, dragged Lendeborg to a basketball camp for Dominican players the summer after his senior year at Pennsauken (N.J.) High School. Then she found him the last spot on the roster at Arizona Western, a community college in remote Yuma, Ariz.<\/p>\n Lendeborg spent three years there, morphing from a slender, awkward freshman into a muscular, legitimate Division I prospect. Kyle Isaacs, an Arizona Western assistant coach in Lendeborg\u2019s first season and the head coach his final two years, initially didn\u2019t envision the NBA in his future.<\/p>\n \u201cHell no, not even close,\u201d Isaacs said. \u201cHe had no idea how to play, no idea about organized basketball, no idea about responsibilities. He didn\u2019t know about the accountability you needed to have success.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Asked about his wandering attention, from high school through six years of college hoops, Lendeborg wondered if he has attention-deficit disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI daydream a lot and make different realities for myself all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess I\u2019m living a weird life sometimes, but I enjoy being myself and being authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg shoots against the New York Knicks on Thursday during a summer league game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ronda Churchill\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n Lendeborg eventually learned how to rediscover his focus. His coaches and teammates helped, from Arizona Western to Alabama-Birmingham (where he spent two seasons) to Michigan (one year). Lendeborg, last season\u2019s Big Ten Player of the Year, led the Wolverines to the 2026 national championship.<\/p>\n Along the way, he earned respect in the locker room, partly because of his engaging personality. Former Michigan guard Roddy Gayle Jr. called it one of Lendeborg\u2019s superpowers, the way he lights up a room. He\u2019s a big personality\u00a0\u2014 funny, good-natured, energetic.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This also kept Gayle on alert during their season together in Ann Arbor. He knew Lendeborg\u2019s free spirit extended to postgame news conferences, so Gayle often positioned himself next to his friend.<\/p>\n \u201cYaxel just says whatever is on his mind,\u201d Gayle said. \u201cI had to play security guard, PR and HR, to make sure he was on the straight and narrow. I felt like it was my responsibility to make sure he didn\u2019t get into trouble. \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes in press conferences, he\u2019d get a question he really wanted to take off with\u00a0\u2014 and I\u2019d hit him under the table to tell him this isn\u2019t the time or place.\u201d<\/p>\n From left, Trey McKenney, Yaxel Lendeborg, and Roddy Gayle Jr. of the Michigan Wolverines speak to media after winning a Sweet Sixteen game at the United Center on March 27 in Chicago.<\/p>\n Aaron J. Thornton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Lendeborg\u2019s evolution as a player traces to the evolution of his body.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He flirted with basketball at age 6 or 7 (at his mom\u2019s urging), didn\u2019t like it and stuck to baseball until he was 14. Then, when he returned to hoops, he mostly played on the perimeter because he wasn\u2019t tall\u00a0\u2014 his growth spurt didn\u2019t come until his senior year of high school.<\/p>\n He arrived at Arizona Western in the fall of 2020 at 6-foot-7 and barely more than 200 pounds. He fancied himself a ballhandler\u00a0\u2014 his Instagram bio even included \u201cpoint guard,\u201d according to former teammate Marquis Hargrove.<\/p>\n Hargrove was skeptical, but he soon discovered Lendeborg did own guard skills. He didn\u2019t yet have the bulk to bang near the basket, and he also didn\u2019t have the coordination to make an immediate impact on the court.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first met him, he was this goofy kid who couldn\u2019t tell his left foot from his right,\u201d said Hargrove, who grew up in Sacramento. \u201cWe\u2019d go to the gym to try certain dunks, and he kind of reminded me of Bambi\u00a0\u2014 clumsy and trying to grow into his body. Then he grew to 6-9 and put on a little weight, and the next year we hit the weight room.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden State draft pick Yaxel Lendeborg wears his new Warriors jersey over his suit as he talks to sister Yisendy Lendeborg, left, and girlfriend Tamara Foreman, center, on June 26 at Chase Center.<\/p>\n Lea Suzuki\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n That sent Lendeborg down a fresh path. He didn\u2019t play much during his first year at Arizona Western, a strange season in many ways\u00a0\u2014 shortened to about two months because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n In the spring of 2021, with players stuck on campus, Hargrove and two teammates started going to the gym late at night to play one-on-one games. After some prodding, Lendeborg joined them one night\u00a0\u2014 and won most of the games, leaning on those guard skills.<\/p>\n Hargrove half-seriously asked, \u201cWhere was this during the season?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI remember telling him, \u2018Yo, you could play at Duke,\u2019\u201d Hargrove said. \u201cIt was kind of like Jayson Tatum.\u201d<\/p>\n In one game, Lendeborg corralled a loose ball going out of bounds on the opponents\u2019 baseline. He grabbed it, spotted Hargrove streaking downcourt and flung a behind-the-back pass that hit him in stride.<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg, making a pass during summer league, played point guard \u201cquite a bit\u201d at Alabama Western.<\/p>\n Ronda Churchill\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n Lendeborg blossomed into a productive starter in his second season at Arizona Western (he was named conference Player of the Year) and dominated in his third, leading the nation in rebounding at 13 per game. He became a marquee Division I prospect, by then strong enough to crash the boards and astute enough to see the court and make creative passes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe played him at point guard quite a bit,\u201d Isaacs said. \u201cWe promote one selfish stat here, and that\u2019s rebounding. So my deal with Yaxel was any defensive rebound you get, you can play point guard. He was the best rebounder I\u2019ve ever been around, gifted with amazing feet and hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Lendeborg brought the rebounding with him to UAB, where he led the American Athletic Conference with 10.6 per game in 2023-24 and an 11.4 average the next season. That kind of production motivated Lendeborg to keep spending time in the weight room, and start dreaming big dreams.<\/p>\n Hargrove, a 6-3 guard, went with Lendeborg from Yuma to Birmingham. They were roommates for five years, and inevitably they tangled in playful wrestling matches.<\/p>\n Hargrove often got the best of his friend at Arizona Western. Not so much at UAB.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a mindset shift during our time there,\u201d Hargrove said. \u201cHe started thinking he could actually reach the NBA. He got a lot more serious as far as being in the gym and getting to sleep on time. His work ethic definitely picked up.\u201d<\/p>\n Or, as UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said, \u201cYaxel had all the physical tools and a willing spirit, it was just about convincing him how good he could really be.\u201d<\/p>\n The Warriors will rely on Yaxel Lendeborg to inject youth and athleticism into an aging roster.<\/p>\n Lea Suzuki\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n The Warriors need Lendeborg to pump fresh life into an old team trying to bounce back from a frustrating, injury-filled, 37-45 season.<\/p>\n They need him to charge downhill in transition\u00a0\u2014 a flashback to his Arizona Western days\u00a0\u2014 and whip the ball to open teammates, as he routinely did in summer league. They also need him to stay engaged on defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n And if Lendeborg sinks long-distance shots with Stephen Curry-like accuracy, that wouldn\u2019t hurt either. It\u2019s obviously a small sample size, but Lendeborg went 14-for-29 (48.3%) beyond the arc in his first six summer league games, even after a 1-for-6 outing in Thursday\u2019s win over the Knicks.<\/p>\n Joyner, the former Michigan assistant (he played at De La Salle-Concord and later coached under Randy Bennett at St. Mary\u2019s), was not surprised. Wolverines coaches encouraged Lendeborg to let it fly more often, and he boosted his 3-point volume from 1.9 attempts per game in his last season at UAB to 4.5 in his one season at Michigan.<\/p>\n Yaxel Lendeborg, second from left, celebrates with his Michigan teammates after winning the 2026 NCAA championship game against UConn on April 6 in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n Aaron J. Thornton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n That should mesh with the Warriors, who launched the most 3-points shots in the NBA last season at 44.1 per game.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first time I saw him, I thought this guy should be a really good shooter,\u201d Joyner said. \u201cHis base is so strong, and there\u2019s an ease to it. It looked like Klay Thompson\u2019s stroke. It was clear if Yax put in the work, he was going to be a really good shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n Joyner described Lendeborg\u2019s game as one built on \u201craw feel,\u201d allowing him to scan the floor and make complicated plays look simple. Because he came to the game late, Joyner reasoned, coaches never told him he was only a center or power forward or point guard. He wasn\u2019t pigeon-holed.<\/p>\n Lendeborg\u2019s longest exposure to hoops occurred through playing NBA 2K, typically as Kevin Durant.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to always steal his moves and try to implement them into my everyday life,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cI mean, it started working.\u201d<\/p>\n Gayle, now with the Detroit Pistons in summer league, played the video game with Lendeborg a handful of times when they first met at Michigan\u00a0\u2014 and gained insight into his game.<\/p>\n \u201cHe literally copies everything he sees on 2K, goes to the gym and practices it,\u201d Gayle said.<\/p>\n That might not be the ideal recipe for NBA success, but Lendeborg already has traveled a long, unconventional path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg shoots against the New York Knicks during an NBA summer league game…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":941027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68,7201,161966],"class_list":["post-941026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warriors","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116935223204793239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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