NEW YORK — The Atlanta Hawks chosen French ahead Zaccharie Risacher with the primary choose within the 2024 NBA draft.
Risacher turned the second consecutive worldwide prospect — and fourth general — to be taken with the highest general choose within the draft. He follows fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, who went No. 1 to the San Antonio Spurs in final yr’s draft.
Italian massive man Andrea Bargnani was taken first by the Toronto Raptors in 2006, whereas the Houston Rockets took Corridor of Fame middle Yao Ming with the highest choose in 2002.
Risacher, 19, performed this previous season for JL Bourg in France’s LNB Elite league and averaged 11.1 factors and 4.0 rebounds throughout competitors in each the EuroCup and the French league. He’s the son of longtime French skilled basketball participant Stephane Risacher, who received a silver medal with the French nationwide workforce on the Olympic Video games in 2000.
The 6-foot-9 ahead separated himself all through the draft course of, with Atlanta — which jumped up from the eleventh spot to the highest spot within the NBA draft lottery final month for the primary time in franchise historical past. Now, Risascher will go right into a frontcourt alongside breakout ahead Jalen Johnson with the Hawks, who enter the offseason with loads of questions surrounding the way forward for their star-laden backcourt of Trae Younger and Dejounte Murray.
Fellow Frenchman Alex Sarr, additionally 19, was taken at No. 2 by the Washington Wizards, whereas Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard went to the Houston Rockets at No. 3.
Throughout his introductory remarks, NBA commissioner Adam Silver congratulated the Boston Celtics on profitable the 2024 NBA title — drawing boos from the a number of thousand followers assembled right here — and remarked on how the Celtics constructed their workforce via drafting Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum third within the 2016 and 2017 drafts.
Silver’s feedback got here with an ironic twist, because the draft was being held right here at Brooklyn’s Barclays Middle, the place the Nets make their house — the workforce that despatched the Celtics the picks that turned Brown and Tatum as a part of the commerce that introduced Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett right here in 2013.
In contrast to final yr’s draft, with Wembanyama the plain choice right through, it was a way more muddled course of this yr, with Risacher, Sarr, Sheppard and Connecticut middle Donovan Clingan all mentioned as doable choices earlier than Atlanta landed on Risacher with the choice.
After the Hawks took Risacher, Washington then chosen Sarr, a flexible 7-foot ahead who has drawn some comparisons to longtime NBA star Al Horford, with the second choose, as had been broadly anticipated, setting the stage for the primary true dramatic second when the Rockets went on the clock with the third general choice.
Houston, which had this choose as a result of it acquired it from the Nets within the James Harden commerce in 2021, then took Sheppard, the sharpshooter from Kentucky who hit 52% of his 3s with the Wildcats, with the third general choice, including to a burgeoning younger expertise base with the Rockets that features guard Amen Thompson, ahead Jabari Smith Jr. and middle Alperen Sengun.