The Hawks select France’s Zaccharie Risacher with the first pick in the 2024 NBA draft. (1:47)
NEW YORK — The Atlanta Hawks selected French forward Zaccharie Risacher with the first pick in the 2024 NBA draft.
Risacher became the second consecutive international prospect — and fourth overall — to be taken with the top overall pick in the draft. He follows fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, who went No. 1 to the San Antonio Spurs in last year’s draft.
Italian big man Andrea Bargnani was taken first by the Toronto Raptors in 2006, while the Houston Rockets took Hall of Fame center Yao Ming with the top pick in 2002.
Risacher, 19, played this past season for JL Bourg in France’s LNB Elite league and averaged 11.1 points and 4.0 rebounds across competition in both the EuroCup and the French league. He is the son of longtime French professional basketball player Stephane Risacher, who won a silver medal with the French national team at the Olympic Games in 2000.
The 6-foot-9 forward separated himself throughout the draft process, with Atlanta — which jumped up from the 11th spot to the top spot in the NBA draft lottery last month for the first time in franchise history. Now, Risacher will go into a frontcourt alongside breakout forward Jalen Johnson with the Hawks, who enter the offseason with plenty of questions surrounding the future of their star-laden backcourt of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray.
Fellow Frenchman Alex Sarr, also 19, was taken at No. 2 by the Washington Wizards, while Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard went to the Houston Rockets at No. 3.
During his introductory remarks, NBA commissioner Adam Silver congratulated the Boston Celtics on winning the 2024 NBA title — drawing boos from the several thousand fans assembled here — and remarked on how the Celtics built their team through drafting Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum third in the 2016 and 2017 drafts.
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Silver’s comments came with an ironic twist, as the draft was being held here at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, where the Nets make their home — the team that sent the Celtics the picks that became Brown and Tatum as part of the trade that brought Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett here in 2013.
Unlike last year’s draft, with Wembanyama the obvious selection all the way through, it was a much more muddled process this year, with Risacher, Sarr, Sheppard and UConn center Donovan Clingan all discussed as possible options before Atlanta landed on Risacher with the selection.
After the Hawks took Risacher, Washington then selected Sarr, a versatile 7-foot forward who has drawn some comparisons to longtime NBA star Al Horford, with the second pick, as had been widely expected, setting the stage for the first true dramatic moment when the Rockets went on the clock with the third overall selection.
Houston, which had this pick because it acquired it from the Nets in the James Harden trade in 2021, then took Sheppard — the sharpshooter who hit 52% of his 3s with the Wildcats — with the third overall selection, adding to a burgeoning young talent base with the Rockets that includes guard Amen Thompson, forward Jabari Smith Jr. and center Alperen Sengun.
That meant another Texas team, the San Antonio Spurs, were on the clock with the fourth overall pick — their first of two, along with the eighth pick, in this year’s lottery. The Spurs caused a huge cheer from the crowd here in Brooklyn by taking Stephon Castle, a guard from two-time defending national champion Connecticut.
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With the fifth overall pick, the Detroit Pistons had been another team with some intrigue, as several teams were potentially looking to trade up to draft Clingan, the top defensive player in this draft. Ultimately, however, the Pistons stood pat and drafted Ron Holland II, a 6-foot-7 forward who spent this past season with the G League Ignite.
The Charlotte Hornets then continued the French connection at the top of this draft by taking Tidjane Saluan, a long, rangy 6-foot-9 forward who spent last season playing for Cholet Basket in France.
That left Clingan on the board for the Portland Trail Blazers with the seventh selection, who had been hoping to land the center with their pick and then were able to get him there.