It took Zaccharie Risacher a while to learn what many around him had long known - that his father Stephane Risacher was a great basketball player.
Risacher trying to follow in father's footsteps
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The younger Risacher has since realized it and is taking major steps to follow in his dad’s footsteps, which makes him an intriguing prospect to follow at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals.
Risacher will be playing at the ANGT Finals with U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne after the club received a wild card for the event, to be held in Valencia, Spain, from June 3-6. It will be another step up in his still very young career.
Risacher grew up with basketball around him. He was born in Spain in 2005 and lived there his first three years while his father was playing for Unicaja Malaga and Murcia. Zaccharie doesn’t remember that much from his time on the Iberian peninsula.
"I was very young, but I just remember there was a small basket in the garden and I was always outside playing," he said.
The Risacher family lived in Spain for a total of six years and one Spanish custom followed the family to France in 2008.
"As long as I can remember I was always in the gym."
"We kept the habit of having dinner late like in Spain," Risacher said.
Dinners in Spain and France were full of basketball talk, he remembered. That’s also because the game was a major part of his father’s life as Stephane played for Paris, Pau-Orthez, Olympiacos Piraeus, Unicaja, Murcia and Elan Chalon - not to mention 10 years for the France national team.
"As long as I can remember I was always in the gym, following my dad and we always had a basket at home," said Risacher, who joined the Chalon sur Saone youth ranks when he was 3 and a half years old.
But to Zaccharie, Stephane Risacher was just his father, not a 2000 Olympic silver medalist who played 96 games over six seasons in the EuroLeague for Olympiacos and Unicaja before retiring in 2010.
"As I got older I realized my dad was a great player. We had always spoken about basketball at home since I was very young. But I was 12 when I realized this," he explained.
Growing up in Lyon and playing for the small club Tassin in the city suburbs, Risacher had his father with him in his own basketball endeavor as the team’s assistant coach.
Zaccharie signed with ASVEL to play in the club’s youth ranks in August 2020 and was excited about the opportunity to play for an organization that regularly gives its youngsters chances to play at higher levels.
"I was very lucky to join the academy and be able to stay close to my home and my family. I want to continue developing myself in order maybe to have this opportunity," said Risacher, who has played in the French U21 league this season since early March. "Playing at this level allowed me to learn quicker. The players are physically stronger and more mature."
Risacher got a major taste of success when ASVEL claimed the U21 league title this season with the forward averaging 4.4 points and 1.8 rebounds in 10 minutes over 10 games - highlighted by a 12-point effort in a quarterfinals victory over Pau-Lacq-Orthez.
"I was very lucky to join the academy and be able to stay close to my home and my family."
Risacher showed at the ANGT Valencia qualifying event just how quick of a learner he is. In his first two games in the late December 2020 tournament, he combined for 6 points and 6 rebounds. Then he poured in 18 points with 7 rebounds against the U18 team of his father’s former club Unicaja. And Zaccharie finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals against U18 Herbalife Gran Canaria.
"I played better in the second part of the tournament," he reflected. "It was nice to see how players from others countries are playing the game of basketball."
Risacher and a number of his teammates from the championship-winning U21 team are now ready for a chance at another title. ASVEL's invitation to the ANGT Finals marks the club’s first appearance in the competition's final round of action. Risacher will once again heed the advice of his parents.
"The first thing my parents told me was to always try to do my best on the court. And stay focused on my goals," he said.
And only recently has that included trying to be as successful as his father.