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ESPN NBA Analyst Struggles Mightily With the Name of Last Year’s No. 1 Pick

Stephen Douglas

Zaccharie Risacher’s name is a mouthful for some basketball analysts.
Zaccharie Risacher’s name is a mouthful for some basketball analysts. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
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Udonis Haslem will be one of Amazon Prime's first studio analysts in their initial forray into NBA coverage this season. These days he's still an analyst for ESPN, which is why he was breaking down the Atlanta Hawks' big offseason on NBA Today Thursday afternoon.

That's when he tried to say the name of Atlanta's second-year forward Zaccharie Risacher and failed miserably.

"You've got your young core in Jalen Johnson and Rosh... Rosh Hashanah. However you say his name. Excuse me I'm sorry."

Haslem then took a couple more swings at Risacher's last name, but could not get it right before he just moved on while everyone else on the show laughed.

Risacher was the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA draft and came in second in Rookie of the Year voting after he averaged12.6 points and 3.6 rebounds on 35% three-point shooting. However, he struggled against the Heat, averaging just 6.8 points per game which is why Haslem, Miami's president of basketball development probably doesn't know his name yet.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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