Zaccharie Risacher Shines for Team France in EuroBasket Win

Atlanta Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher set the tone for Team France today in their EuroBasket victory over Great Britain. 

Risacher only played for 14 minutes, but he stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points and 6 rebounds. That point total included a thunderous dunk that quickly went viral online. Team France won the preliminary game by a score of 74-67. 

Team France is currently as loaded as any team in the tournament with Victor Wembanyama in the middle. Also on the team are NBA players like Bilal Coulibaly and Guerschon Yabusele. The team is so good that Moussa Diabate, Ousmane Dieng, and Frank Ntilikina were all cut. 

The future is bright for Team France, as its EuroBasket roster includes the first and second selections of the 2024 NBA Draft: Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr. Sarr was the star of Team France's first preliminary game; Risacher was the star of the second. 

If he didn't look like a star in his first season, Risacher definitely didn't look intimidated by the NBA. 19 years old for the entirety of the year, he played in 75 games, starting 73 of them. Playing for a playoff-contending Hawks team, he averaged 12.4 points a game with 3.6 rebounds. He also shot 35.5% from the three-point line. 

Risacher's upper-level skills were apparent in a few games in his first season, which saw him earn First-Team All-Rookie Honors. He had a 36-point game in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks and topped that with a 38-point game against the Brooklyn Nets in April.