Oliver Rioux is a 17-year-old Canadian teenager who plays basketball as a center and is tipped to be one of the best upcoming prospects in the sport. A video of him playing basketball went viral which caught the eye of many basketball professionals including Steph Curry and Jamal Murray.
Not only that, He is massively tall, possessing a height of 7’6 which is humungous in this generation. This boy makes NBA greats like Shaquille O’Neal, and Kevin Garnett look small as well as NBA rookies Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren too.
Rioux has been a student at IMG Academy since July 2021. He was raised in Canada. With this kind of ability and skills, he clearly possesses a threat at the rim on both sides of the ball, snatching offensive rebounds, and swatting away shot attempts, giving the impression that the game is simple for someone his height. At this age, he has the world at his feet if he keeps his head down and works hard towards his goal.
4🌟 2024 C Olivier Rioux has committed to The Gators!
Not only is the IMG product a top 150 player, but he is also the tallest teenager in the WORLD! Here is him next to 6’5 Jordan Seaton🤯 pic.twitter.com/voH9kdPQfa
— Florida Recruiting (@FLRecruits) November 9, 2023
This summer, he competed for the Canada U19 squad. Rioux was a late-arriving player who played in just 31 minutes across five games, but during that time, he averaged 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 points, including 1.4 offensive rebounds per contest according to Fox Sports.
Oliver Rioux holds the Guinness Book World Record for the tallest teenager
At well over 7 feet 5 inches tall (7’6), Rioux was declared the world’s tallest teenager by Guinness World Records in December 2020. The native of Quebec has been a basketball player since he was five years old. Rioux had only turned twelve when he briefly got famous on the internet through a social media post by Jamal Murray, he had uploaded a story on Instagram along with Oliver who was just 12 years old at that time.
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Rioux is growing fond of the game in a healthy way. Despite the difficulties that his extreme height can present, he is also growing into a promising prospect. Rioux has been trained by Joey Mckitterick since he was twelve years old, he said:
“When you see Olivier, every three to six months he’s doing things quicker, faster, stronger, more balanced, he’s got more agility. This is important, because usually taller players are a little bit slower (to develop), and he’s moving at the right rate in terms of a super tall player”.
It remains to be seen how Oliver develops over the years as he needs to learn the traits as well as gain a lot of experience in the sport. If he were to make it to the top and reach the NBA he would have to put a lot of effort to reach there as there is a lot of competition now.