NBA Draft: Alex Sarr denies saying he didn’t want to be in Atlanta

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The first round of the NBA Draft is in the books, and the Hawks came away with Zaccharie Risacher after a saga with Alex Sarr.

When Sarr was asked about skipping Atlanta’s workout, he essentially dodged the question, adding that he has good people around him, but he did tell Jake Fischer that he would indeed report to the Hawks if they had drafted him at No. 1 overall.

“I’ll play for any team that drafts me,” Sarr said before the draft, via Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports. “For me, the most important thing is if a team is willing to take a chance on you, you just have to go there and play hard. There’s no such thing as being picky or not wanting to go somewhere.”

Right before Adam Silver took the stage last night, Sarr told ESPN that he never said he didn’t want to be in Atlanta but once again added that he’s got a great team around him.

https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/1806087501293006940

Whether it was Alex Sarr, his camp, or the Hawks, this smells fishy.

It is what it is at this point. Zaccharie Risacher is a Hawk, and Alex Sarr is a Wizard, but there’s just something unsettling about this entire situation. From an outside perspective, it sure looks like Landry Fields and the Hawks front office were bullied out of taking the top prospect.

Granted, there wasn’t some generational talent like LeBron James, Zion Williamson, or Victory Wembanyama in this draft class that was obviously deserving of the top pick, so Hawks fans were always going to be disgruntled with whoever they picked, but this entire process doesn’t pass the smell test if you ask me.

Photographer: JB Autissier Panoramic/Icon Sportswire
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