Zach Edey has been selected ninth overall in the NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies.
The 22-year-old centre from Toronto is the first Canadian to be drafted this year.
Edey averaged 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and two assists over 39 games for the Purdue Boilermakers in the 2023-24 season.
Zach Edey is selected 9th overall by the <a href=”https://twitter.com/memgrizz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@memgrizz</a> in the 2024 <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBADraft?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#NBADraft</a> presented by State Farm!<br><br>Watch on ABC & ESPN. <a href=”https://t.co/eAqSFcxzWK”>pic.twitter.com/eAqSFcxzWK</a>
—@NBA
His NCAA career average was 18.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, and 1.3 assists over four seasons with Purdue.
Those numbers are skewed lower as he started only twice in his freshman year and played half as many minutes per game that season.
The seven-foot-four big man won the Naismith Award on April 7 as U.S. college basketball’s player of the year for a second time. He is only the third male player to win back-to-back Naismiths, joining Hall of Famers Ralph Sampson and Bill Walton.
Hawks take Risacher
The Atlanta Hawks took Zaccharie Risacher with the No. 1 pick, the second straight year a player from France was the first player selected.
Risacher doesn’t come with the enormous height or hype of Victor Wembanyama, the towering centre who went to San Antonio last year and went on to win the Rookie of the Year award.
But the Hawks saw him as the best choice in what has been viewed as a draft absent of elite talent.
The 19-year-old forward was the winner of the best young player award in the French League last season and beat out big men Alex Sarr, a fellow Frenchman, and UConn’s Donovan Clingan in the race to be the top pick.
When he did, it made NBA draft history. This is the first time that the draft has gone consecutive years without the No. 1 pick being someone who played at an American college.
Sarr went second to the Washington Wizards after playing last year with Perth in Australia’s National Basketball League.
The Hawks had only a 3 per cent chance of winning the lottery to earn the No. 1 pick, and there was no obvious choice waiting once they did. Most mock drafts were split between Risacher and Sarr, and Atlanta also worked out Clingan.
Houston made Kentucky freshman Reed Sheppard the No. 3 pick. A one-and-done college player had topped the draft for 13 straight years from 2010-22 before Wembanyama ended that streak.
Now it’s France’s time at the top.