The annual NBA Draft was held last night, and it was one of the more interesting ones, where French players dominated the board.
Nikola Topic was selected as the 12th overall pick of the Oklahoma City Thunder. This move seems logical. The team in blue and white replaced Josh Giddey with Alex Caruso and needed a true point guard. That’s exactly what the Crvena Zvezda product is. He was projected to be among the top 10, possibly even the top five picks, but probably due to frequent injuries, some teams only took a brief look at him.
Oklahoma City Thunder is known as a team that develops young talents. In recent years, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, and others have elevated their level of play, and this team finished last year as the best team in the West. Nikola Topic is not the only Serbian player who has played for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Last season, there were Vasilije Micic and Aleksej Pokusevski, and older fans will remember Nenad Krstic.
However, the French once again marked the draft for the second year in a row. Zaccharie Risacher was the number one pick and will be wearing the Atlanta Hawks jersey in the coming years. He is only the fourth player not from the USA to be chosen as the first pick in the draft. Before him, it was Victor Wembanyama, Yao Ming, and Andrea Bargnani.
In second place was Alex Sarr. The young center is moving to the Washington Wizards, having honed his skills in Australia. Risacher and Sarr are the new top 10 picks for the French, joining the ranks of the aforementioned Wembanyama, Bilal Coulibaly, Killian Hayes, and the new Partizan player Frank Ntilikina. Tidjane Salaun, a young player from Chalon, also joined them in the end.
Nikola Djurisic was not selected in this round, and there’s hope that he will be picked in the second round. The same goes for Bronny James, the son of the legendary LeBron James.
NBA Draft picks:
Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta Hawks)
Alex Sarr (Washington Wizards)
Reed Shepard (Houston Rockets)
Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
Ron Holland (Detroit Pistons)
Tidjane Salaun (Charlotte Hornets)
Donovan Clingan (Portland Trail Blazers)
Rob Dillingham (San Antonio Spurs, traded to Minnesota Timberwolves)