With less than 24 hours from the NBA Draft, the question of who will the Atlanta Hawks choose with their #1 draft pick remains uncertain.
The two names that have been most on top of the mock draft boards, Donovan Clingan and Alex Sarr, spoke to the media this afternoon. Sarr has been seen as the hopeful the Hawks are most likely to take, but he has been the focus of the most controversy as well.
There have been reports that Sarr (per his agent) does not want to join the Hawks, and this morning in an interview with 929 The Game’s Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden, Hawks General Manager Landry Fields said the 19-year-old former Perth Wildcats center skipped a practice meet with the team.
“He was scheduled to come work out,” he said on The Steak House Tuesday morning. “We had it on the books and then he declined to work out.”
This afternoon at an NBA pre-draft press conference, Sarr was asked by Atlanta News First Sports Director Baillie Burmaster about reports he skipped Hawks workouts.
Alex Sarr on why he declined to workout with the Atlanta Hawks #NBA #NBADraft pic.twitter.com/v8OvOxqKWX
— Baillie Burmaster (@baillie_burm) June 25, 2024
Credit: Baillie Burmaster/X
“I have a great team around me,” said Sarr. “I’ve been through this, I trust them and I won’t get into specifics of whether I worked out or where I did. I’ve been doing my best in the workouts.” He added it was more important to him to get drafted rather than being the top draft prospect.
Besides Sarr, Clingan, also a center for the NCAA Men’s Basketball champion UConn Huskies, is also considered by some analysts to be a fit with the Hawks. He told the press his workout with the Hawks turned out well.
“[I] feel like I was able to show everything I can do offensively and defensively at a very high level,” Clingan said. “[I] felt like it went well and we’ll see tomorrow.”
France-based Zaccharie Risacher is another potential draft choice.
Fields signaled the Hawks would stick with the #1 draft pick regardless of who’s at the top, so either of the two (or someone else) could be drafted into the team tomorrow night.