Who Are Yaxel Lendeborg’s Parents? Meet The Couple Behind The Golden State Warriors Rookie

Yaxel Lendeborg has made noise in his first week in the NBA, going back and forth with Luka Doncic and posting a double-double in his second game. But his story began long before the Warriors drafted him 11th in June. It started with two parents who both played for the Dominican Republic national team, and a mother who refused to give up on him. Here is a look at Yissel Raposo and Okary Lendeborg.

Two athletes who raised a basketball star

Yaxel is the oldest of four children. He was born in Puerto Rico, and his parents are both from the Dominican Republic. His mother, Yissel Raposo, played basketball for the national team and also played volleyball for it. She was competing in both sports at the American University of Puerto Rico when Yaxel was born, and she has joked that she played while he was in her belly for two months and no one knew. His father, Okary, was a playmaker for the national team who was playing overseas at the time. Yaxel says his grandfather, Yissel's dad, was his first father figure.

The family later moved to Ohio for work and school, then settled in Pennsauken, New Jersey, when Yaxel was eight. Okary now runs events for young athletes, including an annual 3x3 tournament in Santo Domingo. “I do have some natural ability that just comes from my parents I guess,” Yaxel has said.

Yissel saw the NBA dream early. She bought him NBA clothes, and when she asked what he wanted to be, he always said the same thing. The road was not smooth. After his grandfather died, Yaxel lost his drive, and his grades kept him off the court for two years of high school.

The mother who “saved his life”

When he was 17, Yissel told him there was no more time to mess around. She sat him down with a counselor, moved him to classes at a community college in Camden, and drove him there each morning. “You will have to sacrifice, but I will, too,” she told him. After he did not draw scouts, she used her Dominican basketball contacts to get him into a camp in New York, and that led to a scholarship at Arizona Western. He still says she pretty much forced him onto the plane.

In The Players' Tribune, Yaxel wrote that his mom “pretty much saved my life that night.” He later wrote about her cancer diagnosis and said she is “the strongest person I've ever known.” When the Warriors picked him, he cried as he hugged her.

His bond with his father has been harder. Yaxel has written that things grew tense and hostile between them at one point. But both parents were at his big moments, including the Elite Eight win and the draft.