{"id":36712,"date":"2025-04-30T15:27:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/?p=36712"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:27:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T15:27:30","slug":"breaking-news-7-foot-9-olivier-rioux-rejects-3-5m-offer-from-tennessee-commits-to-florida-gatorsolivier-rioux-has-turned-down-a-jaw-dropping-3-5-million-offer-from-the-tennessee-volunteer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/?p=36712","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer from Tennessee, Commits to Florida Gators\u201dOlivier Rioux has turned down a jaw-dropping $3.5 million offer from the Tennessee Volunteer\u201d. Rioux is not only the tallest player in college basketball\u2014he holds the Guinness World Record as the tallest teenager in the world\u2026.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d79db4796efc26332eabfc3f5dafbc76\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<div class=\"hb-ad-inarticle\">\r\n    <div class=\"hb-ad-inner\"> \r\n    <div class=\"hbagency_cls\"  id=\"hbagency_space_111930\"><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer from Tennessee, Commits to Florida Gators\u201dOlivier Rioux has turned down a jaw-dropping $3.5 million offer from the Tennessee Volunteer\u201d. Rioux is not only the tallest player in college basketball\u2014he holds the Guinness World Record as the tallest teenager in the world\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a stunning decision that\u2019s rocking the college basketball world, 7-foot-9 Olivier Rioux has turned down a jaw-dropping $3.5 million NIL offer from the Tennessee Volunteers to officially commit to the Florida Gators. Rioux, recognized by Guinness World Records as the tallest teenager on the planet, is making headlines not just for his towering height but for his bold choice rooted in loyalty, development, and team culture.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-36714\" src=\"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5184-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5184-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5184.jpg 465w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sources close to Rioux say the decision wasn\u2019t about money\u2014it was about fit. \u201cFlorida feels like home,\u201d Rioux stated. \u201cI believe in what they\u2019re building, and I want to grow with that.\u201d His commitment delivers a massive boost to Florida\u2019s frontcourt and positions the Gators as a national contender overnight.<\/p>\n<p>Rioux, who has captured global attention for his height and skill, is expected to be a defensive anchor and marketing phenomenon in Gainesville. The Florida Gators coaching staff lauded his maturity and vision for long-term success, praising him as a leader beyond his years.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee&#8217;s multimillion-dollar offer was one of the largest NIL packages publicly reported this season, making Rioux\u2019s commitment to Florida a powerful statement about values over valuation.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer from Tennessee, Commits to Florida Gators\u201dOlivier Rioux has turned down a jaw-dropping $3.5 million offer from the Tennessee Volunteer\u201d. Rioux is not only the tallest player in college basketball\u2014he holds the Guinness World Record as the tallest teenager in the world\u2026.. &nbsp; In a stunning decision that\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":36713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[565],"class_list":["post-36712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-florida-gators"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer \u2026..\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer from Tennessee, Commits to Florida Gators\u201dOlivier Rioux has turned down \u2026..\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/?p=36712\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer \u2026..\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer from Tennessee, Commits to Florida Gators\u201dOlivier Rioux has turned down \u2026..\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/?p=36712\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"letsportsrock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-30T15:27:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.letsportsrock.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/photo.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Hembaor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Hembaor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.letsportsrock.com\\\/?p=36712#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.letsportsrock.com\\\/?p=36712\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Paul Hembaor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.letsportsrock.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/97aa0f336f5a3ca15a8ec7d78846f045\"},\"headline\":\"Breaking News: 7-Foot-9 Olivier Rioux Rejects $3.5M Offer from Tennessee, Commits to Florida Gators\u201dOlivier Rioux has turned down a jaw-dropping $3.5 million offer from the Tennessee Volunteer\u201d. 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