When Hawks rookie Zaccharie Risacher makes his regular-season debut Wednesday, he’ll have a couple of familial faces in the crowd.
The rookie shared that his parents, Stéphane and Sandrine Risacher, will make the nearly 4,500-mile journey from his hometown of Lyon, France, to Atlanta for the game. The 19-year-old added that his parents would remain in town for a week.
“They’ll be there Wednesday to share this experience with me — my first NBA game,” Risacher said Monday. “That’s gonna be special, and I’m glad my parents will make the travel for me because it’s a long flight. It’s across the ocean. So, it’s really important for me, and I really appreciate that.”
Though Risacher has played basketball professionally for three years, he has never had the challenge of doing it so far from home. He signed his first professional contract with ASVEL Basket, a team located in the suburb of his hometown, in 2021. That club eventually loaned out his rights to JL Bourg, which is a drive of about 75-90 minutes from Lyon, for the 2023-24 season.
So, he’s happy that he can lean on his family and close friends, even if they are an ocean away, as he transitions to life in the NBA. His father, Stéphane, played for several professional teams across Europe over 10 years and played for the French national team at the junior and senior levels. He helped to cultivate his son’s love for the game, as well as his competitiveness.
“I’m really close to my family and my closer friends,” he said. “I think it’s important, especially when you start to have influence and be a professional overseas in the NBA. It’s really important to have close people you can count on. And so I’m really grateful to have those people in my life.
“And yeah, my family is a special thing for me, and that means a lot that they come all the way from France for my first NBA game and, yeah, like, like you say everybody was super excited of me coming to the States to achieve my dream. So, I just want to make them proud.”
Risacher already has impressed Hawks coach Quin Snyder with his work ethic and drive to improve. The rookie often is among the last players left in the gym going over drills with some of the team’s assistants and player development coaches during the time allowed for media members to observe practice. He’s often seen working on hitting shots from 3 off the dribble or doing catch-and-shoot drills from deep.
That work translated into the two exhibition games he played, where he averaged 16 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists, all while shooting 44.4% on 3-point shots. He shot 60% from the floor as he played within the flow of the game.
“I think he understands just the level of the players in this league and not that I think he feels like he definitely belongs, and he can have success, but he’s also aware of the road that he’s got to take,” Snyder told reporters in Miami on Oct. 16.
A key part of the road to Risacher’s success is his ability to communicate not only with his teammates and coaches. He has the benefit of the Hawks having at least three people in the building who can speak French fluently, in center Clint Capela, forward Mouhamed Gueye and video coordinator/player development coach Bryan George.
Capela and Gueye have been there for Risacher when he needs clarification on the court, like when he has questions about plays or how to defend an opponent. But they’ve also helped with his adjustment off the court, like when he needs restaurant recommendations or if he has car problems.
“After the first road trip, I think all the birds of the city (expletive) on my car, and CC helped me to find a place to wash it real quick,” Risacher said. “So, that was funny at first, and then that was just ridiculous, you know. And I had to make it right. So, he helped me to do it.”
According to Capela, though, it took the rookie some time before he made it to the car wash.
“We’ve been talking a bit every day, and a week ago, too, I saw that he had bird poop on his car. I’m like, ‘OK, Zacch, it’s been like, five days. You can’t have your car looking that way. It’s a nice car. You just got it. I’m gonna send you an address where you can get your car washed.’ And it took, it took him another five days. And, one morning, I’m like, ‘Zacch, it’s an off-day today. You got to go get it. You got to go get it clean.’ And eventually he went. And the next day I was like, ‘so it wasn’t that bad, right?’ He said, ‘No, I didn’t even have to get out my car.’”
Risacher still has plenty of firsts ahead of him with the Hawks kicking off their 82-game regular season Wednesday. But he’ll have parents in the stands and the family he created among his teammates witnessing the latest milestone.
“The goals never change for me,” he said. “I just want to help my teammates, my team, win games. And that’s what I’m going to do Wednesday and for the rest of the season. I just want to make sure I’m a piece for winning and that’s it.”
