French connection flavors NBA draft speculation

French teenager Zaccharie Risacher has the best odds on major online sportsbooks to be selected No. 1 overall in the NBA draft this week.

Risacher was born in Spain and is coming off a breakout season in France. Alex Sarr was born in France and spent last season playing in Australia. 

The next step in their global basketball journey is the NBA, with one of them potentially heading to Atlanta on Wednesday night as the No. 1 pick in the draft.

“We grew up together, competing against each other, and now we are here in New York for the draft and it’s one day to realize our dream, you know?” Risacher said Tuesday. “So this is special.”

It’s a special time for France, which could have the No. 1 pick for a second straight season after Victor Wembanyama went to San Antonio last year amid enormous expectations and lived up to the hype in a Rookie of the Year season.

Neither Sarr, Risacher nor anyone else will arrive with that type of promise, part of the reason the 2024 draft has long been viewed as a weak one. It’s unclear which way the Hawks will lean, or even if they are focusing on the two French players.

Much of the speculation surrounding the Hawks’ choice since they won the draft lottery last month initially focused on Sarr, a well-traveled 7-footer from Bordeaux, France, who began his pro career in Spain with Real Madrid’s youth team. He spent two years in the U.S. playing with Overtime Elite, a developmental league, and last season was with the Perth Wildcats in Australia’s National Basketball League.

His basketball existence is hard to imagine for one of the players he could be competing with for the No. 1 spot. Fellow center Donovan Clingan, who has worked out for the Hawks, has spent his entire life near his birthplace of Bristol, Connecticut, where he went to high school before helping UConn win back-to-back national championships.

College teammate Stephon Castle is expected to join him in the top 10 picks, and Kentucky also could have a pair of players go early in freshmen guards Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham.

But that is nothing unusual for college basketball powerhouse programs. Kentucky had six players selected in both 2012 and 2015, the most in the two-round draft format that began in 1989, and the Huskies once went 2-3 in the draft with Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004.

But this is a whole new deal for France — or any country other than the U.S. If Sarr or Risacher is taken first, it would mark the first time that the draft went consecutive years without the No. 1 pick being someone who played at an American college.

The Atlanta Hawks have the No. 1 pick for the first time since 1975 at the draft, which will be a two-night event beginning Wednesday at the Barclays Center in New York. 

The Washington Wizards, Houston Rockets (via the Brooklyn Nets), San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons round out the top five.



Photo: Zaccharie Risacher shoots a free throw at a game in France in 2023.   (AP Photo)