Yaxel Lendeborg's first vlog wasn't a workout tape or a highlight reel. It was the Warriors rookie standing in a California driveway with a gift box in his hand, telling his mother the two words the whole journey was for: welcome home.
Yaxel Lendeborg has played nine NBA games, and not much rattles him. Put him in a driveway in front of his mother, a small gift box in his hand and his whole family gathered around, and the Golden State Warriors rookie said it himself: "I'm nervous now."
The scene is the whole of his first YouTube video, posted Friday and titled "This one's for Mama Yax." His mother, Yissel Raposo, had been brought to a house in California with no idea it was hers. Standing in front of it, family all around, Lendeborg told her: "On behalf of everybody that came to show up, welcome home." Then he invited her inside to "test it out." ClutchPoints and Basketball News both carried the moment as it spread Saturday.
He lays the plan out in the vlog's first minute: the family was surprising his mom with the new house, on the move from Jersey to California — clear across the country, to where her son plays now. The reveal does the rest. Raposo takes in the house with her hands clasped, and then she is in her son's arms on the sidewalk, both of them grinning.
Afterward, on X, he kept it to a single sentence: "Lifelong goal has finally been accomplished. Blessed!"
The woman who set the course
None of this lands without knowing who Raposo is. Basketball was her game first — she played for the Dominican Republic national team. When Lendeborg was ruled academically ineligible as a high school freshman, she stepped in and got him back on track; he did not play organized basketball until his senior year of high school.
The road she put him on was not a straight one. He started at Arizona Western, a junior college he never wanted to attend — the choice was his mother's, and by NBC Sports Bay Area's account, carried by Basketball News, he cried when she made it. Three years of junior college, two seasons at UAB, then Michigan: a national championship, First-Team All-American honors, and the No. 11 pick in June's NBA Draft.
He told the story himself on draft night. "My mom had to have two, three jobs just to provide for the family," he said. "She pretty much put me on this path." And he had already put it in writing: last February, in The Players' Tribune, Lendeborg published an essay about his mother whose title is its whole argument — "How My Mom Saved My Life."
Nine games in
The gift lands in the middle of the loudest rookie start in the league. Lendeborg has started every game of his rookie season — nine straight — and by Bleacher Report's count he is averaging 21 points a night, second on the Warriors only to Stephen Curry. His full line lives on his Stats Hub page. Last week he scored 37 against the Clippers and joined Wilt Chamberlain in the franchise record book; on Thursday he added 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals in a 120-100 win over Miami. The Warriors, who opened 0-3, have won six straight.
Golden State hosts Orlando tonight at Chase Center. Wherever Yissel Raposo watches from, it will be a new address: California, in the house her son spent a lifelong goal on.
Sources · 4 sources
- ClutchPoints — "Warriors news: Watch Yaxel Lendeborg surprise his mom with new house" (November 7, 2026)
- Basketball News — "Yaxel Lendeborg Breaks Silence After Achieving 'Lifelong Goal' With First Warriors Paycheck" (November 7, 2026)
- Bleacher Report — "Warriors' Yaxel Lendeborg Surprises His Mom with New House in Heartwarming Video" (November 7, 2026)
- The Players' Tribune — "How My Mom Saved My Life" — Yaxel Lendeborg (February 2026)
