Yaxel Lendeborg has taken a long road to get to where he is now as the Golden State Warriors' 11th-overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft and one of the most exciting rookies coming into next season after winning 2026 Summer League MVP. 

The Warriors drafted Lendeborg because of his age and experience with the expectation that he'll be able to make an impact on the Warriors right away and the way that he earned that experience was arduous and hard-fought. 

Unlike the every-growing ranks of one-and-done college players, who play in the NCAA for one season as a formality, but always planned on being in the NBA, Lendeborg had to climb his way through the ranks of the college basketball world before getting his recognition. 

Lendeborg didn't even plan on playing college basketball after he graduated high school, but his mother convinced him to go for it and he received a scholarship offer from Arizona Western College, a junior college, where he played for three seasons and left as the NJCAA all-time leader in rebounds. 

After his junior college career, Lendeborg played two seasons at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, before finally transferring to Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to a NCAA championship and earned a unanimous first team All-American selection, fully paving the way for Lendeborg's NBA career. 

After six seasons, one that was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendeborg was finally playing for the Warriors in Summer League and in a recent interview with The Athletic, Lendeborg recalled a moment where the emotions of his journey and all his struggles overcame him before a game.

“When we were going to the game in Vegas, I was about to cry on the bus,” Lendeborg said (via The Athletic). “Like, this is crazy. I’m about to play in the Summer League in Vegas in front of a bunch of people … Three or four tears kind of like dripped from the eye, but I was on a bus with a bunch of guys. They don’t even know me. They barely know me, so I can’t just be crying for no reason.”

That catharsis that Lendeborg felt was well-deserved and he proved that he deserved his shot at professional basketball by leading the Summer League Warriors to a championship. 

Now the regular season is just weeks away and Lendeborg does look to be in a prime position to be the Warriors' starting power forward in a sort of transition time for the franchise with the careers of Steph Curry and Draymond Green drawing to a close while the team has been trending downward. 

Lendeborg could be the difference maker that changes the Warriors' trajectory and makes them winners again or he could have the torch of the franchise passed to him as he becomes the future, but either way, just making it to his point is a victory itself for Lendeborg, but he has a lot of work left to do and an entire career ahead of him.