French revolution: Atlanta Hawks select Zaccharie Risacher with No 1 pick in NBA draft

The NBA is in the midst of a French revolution. The Atlanta Hawks drafted Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft on Wednesday night, making him the second consecutive French player drafted with the top pick.

Risacher doesn’t have the towering height or hype of Victor Wembanyama, the towering center whom San Antonio selected No. 1 overall last year and won the Rookie of the Year award. But the Hawks saw Risacher as the top pick in what was seen as a draft devoid of elite talent.

The 19-year-old forward was the winner of the French league’s best young player award last season, beating big men Alex Sarr, a fellow countryman, and UConn’s Donovan Clingan in the race to become the top pick.

When he did, it made NBA draft history. This is the first time the draft has been conducted for years in a row without the No. 1 pick being someone who played at an American college.

The 19-year-old Risacher impressed the Hawks as a catch-and-shoot scorer with ideal size for a winger. Risacher – who stands 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds – is expected to join guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray and forward Jalen Johnson as starters for a team that hasn’t won a playoff series since the advanced to the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals.

Within a year, there was no consensus pick as the top player in the draft, the Hawks could have traded up for more selections. The No. 1 pick was their only selection in the draft. Instead, general manager Landry Fields didn’t miss the rare opportunity to take advantage of the top pick.

The Washington Wizards took Alex Sarr with the second overall pick, using their highest selection in fourteen years to add some much-needed size to a team that won just fifteen games last season.

Sarr played for the Perth Wildcats in Australia last season. He also spent two years in the US with Overtime Elite, a developmental league.

The Wizards are a year removed from a front office overhaul and an offseason in which they traded Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis. Their struggles last season — they set a franchise record for losses — were fairly predictable, and it’s not clear how much anyone in this draft can accelerate their rebuild.

Washington hasn’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 1979, and this is only the third time since then that the franchise has been selected in the top two of the draft. The Wizards took the fateful No. 1 overall pick in 2001 on Kwame Brown. In 2010, they used the top pick on John Wall, ushering in an era of mild success that eventually ran its course.

After Sarr the French kept coming. The Charlotte Hornets selected French power forward Tidjane Salaun with the sixth overall pick. It was the first time a country outside the US had selected three players in the top 10 of the NBA draft.

Elsewhere, Houston made Kentucky freshman Reed Sheppard the No. 3 pick. Stephon Castle of the two-time reigning national champion Huskies made it two straight freshmen when San Antonio took him at No. 4.

But the evening belonged to French basketball. A one-time college player topped the draft for 13 straight years from 2010 to 2022 before Wembanyama ended that streak. Now it’s time for France at the top.