{"id":822692,"date":"2024-12-10T17:41:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T22:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=822692"},"modified":"2024-12-10T18:17:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T23:17:01","slug":"zaccharie-risacher-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/the-magazine\/253\/zaccharie-risacher-story\/","title":{"rendered":"From France to ATL, No. 1 Pick Zaccharie Risacher is Primed to Make a Big Impact with the Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maybe the easiest way to think about Zaccharie Risacher\u2019s game is to compare it to his English. Both are works in progress, befitting a 19-year-old NBA rookie who was born in Spain to French parents and has spent most of his life in France. Neither is fully polished, but both are probably better than you\u2019d expect. And both figure to get much, much better with time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state of his English was apparent over the course of an hour-long conversation in New York City in October: Risacher showed off a solid grasp of the language, much of it picked up from teammates in the LNB Elite, the top French pro league, where he made his senior team debut as a 16-year-old in 2021 and spent the next three seasons. \u201cIt\u2019s locker room English, not what you expect to learn in a classroom,\u201d he says. There were also movies, especially hoop flicks like He Got Game <\/em>and Coach Carter<\/em>, which he\u2019s recently been able to watch without French overdubs. \u201cThey were actually better in English, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on initial impressions from the NBA preseason, Risacher\u2019s time in France\u2019s pro league was no less beneficial to the development of his game. The 6-8, 200-pound wing, chosen No. 1 overall by Atlanta in the 2024 NBA Draft, made a dream first impression in his NBA debut, going for 18 points (on 7-9 shooting) in just 23 minutes in a win over the Pacers. Those numbers, and that result, might not count toward the Hawks\u2019 hopes for a bounce-back season, but the value of Risacher\u2019s outing is no less real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just ask the two guys whose appraisals matter as much as anyone\u2019s in the ATL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looked like he was enjoying himself,\u201d Hawks coach Quin Snyder told reporters after the game. \u201cHe\u2019s going to have good games, he\u2019s going to have some bad games, but seeing him really have fun playing with his teammates, and those guys making each other better, was what I enjoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trae Young, the Hawks\u2019 franchise player, was similarly pleased with what he saw from his new running mate. \u201cThat was a hell of a performance,\u201d Young said. \u201cI want him to feel like he felt tonight, like there\u2019s no pressure on him. He can go out there and be himself. He\u2019s gonna have a hell of a career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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None of this should come as a surprise\u2014by definition, we expect big things from No. 1 picks\u2014but the buzz on Risacher wasn\u2019t quite on the level that his countryman, Victor Wembanyama, generated before and after the Spurs made him the top pick a year earlier. So, no, he hasn\u2019t been anointed a generational game-changer like Wemby\u2014nor, in the opinions of the 30 general managers who participated in the annual NBA GM survey, is he even a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year. (Five players got at least one vote in the poll, and Risacher somehow wasn\u2019t one of them.) None of which seems to faze him in the least. Risacher knows his value, and he\u2019s confident the glimpses he showed in preseason are just the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the type of player who can do a lot of things on the court\u2014the term would be \u2018versatile,\u2019 I think, in English?\u201d he says. \u201cThe exciting part of having me in your team\u2026I will take pleasure to do whatever it takes to win. I\u2019m that type of player. And I want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On-court versatility comes easily to a player for whom the game is birthright. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBasketball is a habit for me and my family,\u201d he says. \u201cBasketball was already there before I was born.\u201d That\u2019s what happens when you\u2019re born in the midst of your father\u2019s 23-year pro career, as Zaccharie was. Risacher was born born in Malaga, Spain, in 2005, where his dad, St\u00e9phane, was hooping for Baloncesto Malaga in the Spanish top division. That was one of 10 stops on St\u00e9phane\u2019s professional r\u00e9sum\u00e9 in a career that lasted from 1987 to 2010 and also included stints in Greece and his native France. A six-time All-Star in France and a member of the country\u2019s Basketball Hall of Fame, St\u00e9phane was also a fixture for years on the French national team, winning a Silver medal with the 2000 Olympic squad\u2014and, as it happened, being one of the 10 men on the court when Vince Carter created the nastiest poster of all time over his French teammate, Frederic Weis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Le dunk de la mort<\/em> happened five years before Zaccharie was born, so he knows it only through the YouTube clips. But of his own earliest memories, naturally, so many connect to basketball. \u201cI cannot even remember the first time I played,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was just there. Going to my dad\u2019s practices and games, coming to the gym with him at a really young age\u2014I just did it, and I never stopped doing basketball. It was a way of life that I liked. I never felt like I had to do it. I just wanted to be in the gym with my father. I started getting better, and I wanted to be the best version of myself and accomplish what my dad did\u2014and even better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risacher emphasizes that his father never pushed too hard, but simply gave his son the guidance he asked for. (Clearly, the approach is working in the family: Not only has St\u00e9phane been instrumental in helping Zaccharie reach the NBA, but his daughter, Zaccharie\u2019s younger sister Ainhoa, is one of the top young prospects in Europe; she was recently named one of the best players at the FIBA U17 World Cup. Says Zaccharie, \u201cI\u2019m proud of her, excited for her. I can shoot better than her, but she can handle the ball better than me. She\u2019s tall, she loves to play the point, make crazy passes. She\u2019s special. I can\u2019t wait to see her grow.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zaccharie\u2019s own breakthrough came when he made his French league debut for the senior team at ASVEL Basket in 2021. No matter how helpful his father was, the kid had to learn for himself what it was like to play for, with and against grown men who had salaries and careers on the line. Looking back, he says, \u201cBeing pro at 16, that definitely was the biggest challenge of my life. In our league, a coach can get fired super quick. They don\u2019t have time to be nice. It\u2019s a lot of things to handle for a 16-year-old young man. You gotta learn fast, because you play with grown men. You gotta just learn how to deal with it. How I handled it? Just the fact that I never stopped working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Risacher thrived, earning LNB All-Star status in 2023 and being named EuroCup Rising Star earlier this year; more important, the experience toughened him, giving him the confidence that when he made the jump to the NBA, he would be better prepared than most rookies to appreciate the stakes. It made it that much easier to settle in after his move to the States. He says he \u201cfelt at home pretty quick\u201d in Atlanta, which he credits to the vibe of the city and the Hawks organization. Good vibes aside, he\u2019s taken that transition seriously, working out hard between the draft and training camp. \u201cI wanted to be better than I was in June,\u201d he insists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also had a chance to bond with the All-Star teammate with whom a successful partnership is essential for the Hawks\u2019 hopes of improving from last season\u2019s disappointment. A recent highlight: Traveling out to Oklahoma to visit Young on his home turf, catch an OU football game and appear on Young\u2019s podcast. \u201cI really appreciate him for that,\u201d Risacher says of the trip. \u201cThat really meant something for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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