The rise of basketball prodigy Yaxel Lendeborg has captured the sports world’s attention, culminating in his selection as the No. 11 overall pick by the Golden State Warriors in the 2026 NBA Draft. Before dominating the Big Ten as Player of the Year and leading the Michigan Wolverines to an emotional national championship victory over UConn, Lendeborg’s path was shaped entirely behind the scenes by his family. For fans watching his meteoric ascent, understanding his journey requires a deeper look into the lives of his parents, who provided both the athletic blueprint and the emotional foundational support necessary to reach the pinnacle of professional sports.

Below is an in-depth breakdown of the primary driving forces behind the NBA’s newest star.

Table of Contents

1. Who are Yaxel Lendeborg’s parents?
2. What is the ethnicity of Yaxel Lendeborg’s parents?
3. Inside Yaxel Lendeborg’s Relationship with His Parents

Who are Yaxel Lendeborg’s parents?

Yaxel Lendeborg is the eldest of four children born to Yissel Raposo and Okary Lendeborg. Both parents boast elite athletic backgrounds and played for the Dominican Republic national team. Yissel Raposo, who also excelled as a national-level volleyball player, was competing in both sports at the American University of Puerto Rico when Yaxel was born.

She even confirmed, “I played with Yaxel in my belly for two months and no one knew.”

Yaxel and his parents keep details about his three little sisters private. One of his sisters, Yisendy, was a high school sophomore during his NCAA championship run with the Wolverines.

Okary Lendeborg, a highly decorated former national team playmaker, hosts events for local young athletes. Most notably, he coordinates the annual “Clásico 3×3” tournament in Santo Domingo. This tournament serves as a safe haven and a developmental platform for aspiring neighborhood athletes.

What is the ethnicity of Yaxel Lendeborg’s parents?

Both Yissel Raposo and Okary Lendeborg hail from Dominican Republic. The family later went to Cincinnati when Yaxel was a child. His dad’s job would take them to New Jersey where his sisters grew up and his family still resides. However, it was the Ohio ties that led Yaxel to go to the relatively closer, Michigan for college.

It’s probably also the reason why he cheered for the Cavaliers and Kyrie Irving. He hilariously admitted he hated Stephen Curry because of the historic Cavaliers-Warriors rivalry. But the competitive spirit has won over the Warriors veterans.

Inside Yaxel Lendeborg’s Relationship with His Parents

Yaxel Lendeborg penned a deeply emotional essay about his relationship with his parents in a February 2026 edition of The Player’s Tribune. He credits his parents, most notable his mother for his path to Michigan, an NCAA championship, and into the NBA. She was the one who got him NBA merch when he was little and kept his spark for basketball thriving.

After watching his mother fight cancer, Yisel’s support means a lot to Yaxel. “I know that more than anything else, what makes my mom most happy is seeing me happy. Seeing me accomplish my goals.”

Some of those goals included making it to Michigan and winning a championship. Few months later, the family celebrated another one of Yaxel’s goals when the Warriors chose him 11th overall in the 2026 NBA daft. 

His father spent a part of Yaxel’s childhood playing overseas. So it was Yisel’s father, his grandfather, who was his first father figure. Losing him had been hard on 17-year-old Yaxel.

The young athlete also had significant academic struggles that threatened his eligibility for two years. In his senior year of high school, Yisel stepped up, dragged him to counsellor, even coached him at home, and ensured he finished school with a strong athletic and academic foundation. As Yaxel didn’t play enough to get the attention of scouts, she called her Dominican national team connections to get him into a basketball camp in New York.

“All that I do, anything I have or will accomplish, I owe it all to her. She is my guardian angel. My hero,” Yaxel Lendeborg said in The Players’ Tribune.

In the same essay, Yaxel got candid that he and his father’s relationship was tense. They used to have arguments and fights that were getting “hostile” with time. In February, he confessed his mother’s attempts to fix their relationship was getting nowhere.

However, when he won the championship and during the NBA draft, Yaxel and his father didn’t show any signs of estrangement and were celebrating together.

As Yaxel transitions to an NBA career, he does so with a very supportive family, who despite the ups and downs, have backed him all his life.