For those of you who might describe yourself as “tall,” meet Olivier Rioux, the 18-year-old high school senior who just committed to play for the University of Florida this fall. Rioux is absurdly tall—six feet, nine inches (for now) to be exact. Whether he’s playing with his high school teammates or surrounded by them in a huddle, the 300-pound beanstalk looks for all the world like one of those adults who pretends to be a teenage player just for the thrill of beating up kids. The only thing about Rioux that isn’t tall is his storytelling.
Rioux has been on a rapid growth curve for a while: 1.57 m in kindergarten, 1.85 m when he was eight. By the time he was 12 and 2.13m, he would have undersized the 2.06m LeBron James. Around that time, highlights of his domination of his tragically ill-equipped competition began making the rounds on social media, an optical illusion that rivaled the dress meme. (Are the other children 1.80 m or 6 years old?) Four years ago, Guinness World Records declared the then 14-year-old Rioux the world’s tallest teenager at 2.25 m. That would put Rioux one step above the 2.23 m tall NBA Rookie of the Year, Victor Wembanyama. He even stands head and shoulders above legendary NBA giants such as Gheorghe Mureșan (2.20 m), Yao Ming (2.27 m) and Sim Bhullar (2.25 m). “People see his size,” Canadian national team assistant coach Michael Meeks said of Rioux, “and their expectations are pretty high.”
Rioux is not the only skyscraper in its family. His father, a photographer, might have a shot at getting a call the standing out in his profession at 6 feet 10 inches. His mother, a former volleyball player, is 6 feet 10 inches. His older brother, a former hooper, is 6 feet 10 inches. Among other indignities, Rioux has had to deal with people pointing and yelling for his attention wherever he goes. “Of course, I’m tall and all that,” Rioux told the Naples Daily News. “But that’s no reason to yell. I mean, it’s kind of funny, but it’s also frustrating when they do it.”
Related: ‘A real unicorn’: Expectations for Victor Wembanyama were wild. He exceeded them
Rioux, a native of the Montreal suburbs, grew up speaking only French, which might have been possible if he had taken up hockey like most kids his age. But he outgrew the sport before anyone could figure out the damage it could do to a kid who, at 10, was already three inches taller than the NHL’s tallest player today.
The language barrier only became an issue in 2021, when Rioux was sent to the famed IMG sports academy in Florida to refine his basketball skills — something he’ll need, you might imagine, as he faces more talented players closer to his stature. But that’s not to say his acquainted because dunking without leaving his feet won’t help.
Private lessons have done wonders for Rioux’s ability to navigate his academics and understand basketball coaching. (“It was fun,” Rioux said of his first year in Florida. “My grades improved.”) Still, you can’t help but wonder whether the American basketball firmament should brush up on its French, given the recent run of francophones at the NBA draft. “We have a lot of young kids who believe,” French giant Rudy Gobert told ESPN’s Marc Spears after seeing three of his compatriots picked in the top six of this year’s draft. “It started with the older generation paving the way for us and now we’re paving the way for the younger guys.”
France appears to be at the same basketball tipping point as Canada was five years ago, when a record six Canadians came off the draft board within days of the Toronto Raptors winning the country’s first NBA championship. Steve Nash is no longer the standard bearer on the field for the Great North. Today, Canadian basketball players come in all shapes and sizes: the superstar (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), the stopgap (RJ Barrett), the street fighter (Dillon Brooks). But even as Rioux threatens to break the mold as Canada’s tallest player yet, you can’t help but feel he might be 20 years too late.
Basketball used to be a game where big men like Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal ruled the roost and asserted their dominance in the paint. But as the rules changed to allow for freer play and statistical analysis led teams to prioritize dunks and three-pointers, being super tall isn’t enough anymore: Seven-footers often lose their height advantage and play on the perimeter, as Karl-Anthony Towns has done with mixed success for Minnesota. Another example is Wembanyama, who learned to play all five positions on the court even as he quickly evolved into a center, and typifies the approach to this positionless style of play outside the U.S.
We can already see how this affects the draft. Back in the 1980s, 7ft 4in Zach Edey would have been the first off the board. But on Wednesday, the Canadian fell to ninth – behind a number of Towns-esque towers – despite laying claim to one of the finest low-post arsenals in the college game.
It’s still a stretch to say Rioux will even come close to making it to the NBA: He’ll have to prove he can actually play first. The statistics available on him come largely from his play with Canada’s Under-18 team, and the numbers (he averages less than 10 points and 10 rebounds per game) don’t exactly bode well for a behemoth. And it’s incredibly difficult to maintain a basic level of coordination at Rioux’s height, let alone if he grows much taller. Wembanyama’s ability to play with the skill and poise of a smaller man is what makes him such a wonder on the court. Rioux is now five inches taller than Wemby and, by all accounts, still growing. And that’s despite Rioux already working with a body type that’s more prone to injury.
That’s why Rioux will begin his career with the Florida Gators as a preferred walk-on, meaning he’ll have to earn a spot in the team’s rotation to earn a scholarship. But at Florida, a reclusive basketball powerhouse that nonetheless produces a decent number of pros, Rioux has a chance to make a national splash. If onlookers are still pointing and screaming at him, it’s because of the heights Rioux can still reach.
