Olivier Rioux, best known as the Montrealer giant on the IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) basketball team, is more than a basketball player — he takes pleasure in the arts, raving about abstract aquarelle. He is interested in biology and astronomy, saying he absolutely believes aliens are real, for “if we’re the only beings alive, it’s scarier.”
It’s fitting because Rioux is among the new wave of basketball players who have never been seen before.
Standing at 7-foot-7.5 inches and 295 pounds, the University of Florida basketball commit stands taller than Chet Holmgren, taller than Bol Bol, taller than Victor Wembanyama — all who are changing how the basketball world sees players who are that tall.