Despite rarely seeing the floor this season, Boston Celtics rookie Tacko Fall is undoubtedly one of the league's most popular players in the 2019-20 NBA campaign.
While casual fans glamorize him for his gigantic stature and affable demeanor, Fall has always emphasized that he wants to make a name for himself in other areas and not just be the team's mascot.
According to his Celtics teammate Robert Williams, the 24-year-old Senegalese beanpole has been working extremely hard so that fans and pundits will soon recognize him for his game.
“He doesn’t want to be known as a 7-footer that can’t move. You can see the progress he’s making, you can see that he’s grinding and he wants to be known for different stuff. And you can’t do nothing but respect it,” Williams said, per Celtics beat reporter Jay King of The Athletic.
At 7-foot-5, Tacko Fall is quite hard to miss as he literally stands out from the crowd. While his size gave him national attention even during his college days at the University of Central Florida, the Celtics youngster had to prove time and time again that he does belong in the big leagues.
Fall went undrafted in 2019 before signing an Exhibit 10 Contract to play in Beantown. He had to prove himself in the 2019 Summer league before Boston gave him a two-way contract.
Tacko paid his dues in the G-League where he averaged a double-double of 12.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game for the Maine Red Claws. Celtics head coach Brad Stevens currently has the likes of Enes Kanter and Daniel Theis as options at the 5 position, making it hard for Fall to break into the rotation.
Fall, however, proved to be a clear fan-favorite on the rare occasions that he played, eliciting the loudest cheers as he entered from the scorer's table. He appeared in six games before the hiatus, tallying 3.2 points and 1.8 boards in 4.0 minutes of action.
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