Suomessa kateellisuus nostaa valitettavan usein päätään ja rumasti. STT:n uutisoinnilla muistuttaa epäilyttävästi ”tilaustyötä” millä hakemalla haetaan negatiivinen kulma aiheeseen ja väännetään faktat niin että ovat Herra Yrjövuorelle mahdollisimman epäsuotuisat.
Hyvänä vastapainona toimii allaoleva ote nba.com virallisilla sivuilla tehty pitkä artikkeli Lakersista, missä Markolle omistettu pitkä kappale. Tässä artikkelissa mm Vitti ja pelaajat antavat Markolle tunnustusta. Tämä artikkeli tukee taas Markon tarinaa. Kolikolla on aina kaksi puolta, ja valitettavan usein ihmisillä, myös medialla on hyvin matala kynnys lähteä heittämään kiviä.
Lakers sports massage therapist Marko Yrjovuori spends so many hours per week literally working the soreness out of the Lakers that he can’t keep track. No, seriously. I asked him how many hours he spent working on Kobe, Pau and Co., and he wasn’t sure. Affectionately known as “Finn” by many around the team (in part due to distinguish himself from an assistant trainer who happens to share his first name, Marco Nunez, and in part because, well, his last name isn’t the easiest to pronounce), Yrjovuori does so much more for the team than his title suggests. He came across the pond from Finland in 1998 to work for the L.A. Kings, before moving on to the Lakers prior to the 2004-05 season. Since then, he’s been an essential member of Head Athletic Trainer Gary Vitti’s staff, as both his fellow trainers and the players can’t tell you enough.
“Marko is the consummate professional,” said Vitti. “He rarely gets the credit he deserves. Many people don’t know that it is commonplace for us to arrive at a hotel at 2:00 in the morning, at which time Marko will grab his table and do his best to get a player ready for a back-to-back game in less than 24 hours.”
Among Yrjovuori’s specialties is the “active release” technique, which he uses most frequently to educate the muscles of Bryant and Gasol back into more neutral states. Each player has a specific routine he follows on practice and game days, and Bryant’s includes about 30 minutes with Marko prior to games.
“We do the active release techniques and little treatments for Kobe’s knee, and then stretch,” Yrjovuori explained. “Our pregame stretch is different from the postgame stretch we do, with activation of the muscles being the focus before and relax and recovery afterwards.”
On game days, the Finn will also work on Gasol, Ron Artest and Shannon Brown before the game starts. Afterwards, the players have only a few minutes to shower and change before boarding the team bus destined to the team plane, and on Tuesday night (err, Wednesday morning), we arrived at about 2 a.m. in Indianapolis; Yrjovuori came down to grab his bags and massage table in the lobby, tired from a full day’s worth of treatments. But he wasn’t done yet.

Yrjovuori sets up his massage table in his hotel room in each NBA city, and has an open door policy with the players, particularly Pau Gasol.
“On back-to-back nights, I have a routine with Gasol where we do the recovery treatment with him as soon as we get to the hotel,” said Yrjovuori. “Getting treatment at night is what he prefers, and from a training perspective it should be done as soon as possible to help him recover and be ready for the next game. We do light stretching, some release techniques and a light flush, which is more like a massage, to help him get rid of the lactic acid in his body.”
While both Yrjovuori and Gasol are often weary heading into these sessions*, they each understand the importance of the work.
- Being a fourth degree black belt in taekwondo and an MMA fighter for years haven’t hurt Yrjovuori’s endurance.
“It’s a big plus for me to be able to work with Marko, especially after games no matter what time we get into cities,” said Gasol. “You’re tired from the game and the trip, he’s tired from all the work he’s been doing, but you have to be disciplined in your profession. You have to understand what is best for you, not really what you feel like doing or what’s easier to do.”
To put Yrjovuori’s commitment into perspective: he has spent exactly nine days in the past four years in Finland, where his entire family (aside from his wife Taru and two daughters, Emma [four and a half] and Erika [five months]) and many of his friends still live. At least the long sessions are made a bit easier thanks to the ease with which Gasol and Yrjovuori converse.
“Anything but basketball,” said the Spaniard. “He’s a very active guy with a lot of ambitions, and we talk about some of his goals, some of my goals, what I do off the court and his plans off the court back in Finland or L.A. We always have good conversations.”
After Wednesday morning’s session ended at 3 a.m., Yrjovuori got ready for bed, and was asleep soon after 4 a.m., only to wake up a few hours later for the next day’s round of treatments.
“We all do so many things, not only what our contracts says,” Yrjovuori concluded. “We do any and everything to get these guys through the day.”