Grizzlies select Canadian centre Zach Edey with 9th-overall pick in NBA draft

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&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBADraft</a> presented by State Farm!<br><br>Watch on ABC &amp; ESPN. <a href="https://t.co/eAqSFcxzWK">pic.twitter.com/eAqSFcxzWK</a>

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.

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