Tacko Fall Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: C
Born: 12/10/95
Height: 7-5 / 2.26
Weight:311 lbs. / 141.1 kg.
Salary: $79,568
Born: 12/10/95
Height: 7-5 / 2.26
Weight:311 lbs. / 141.1 kg.
Salary: $79,568
Kanter appeared on the “Gino Time Podcast” hosted by MassLive’s Tom Westerholm and The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang where he shared how in awe he is of Fall’s perfect swinging form. Kanter is still deciding if he should upload the video or not. “I actually have a video of Tacko playing golf but I don’t know if I should post that or not.” “I was not actually on the golf course. I was FaceTiming Tacko and Tacko gave his phone to one of the assistant coaches. He actually hits the golf ball pretty good. I was shocked because obviously the clubs are not big enough and that stuff. But his form was perfect and he hit the ball I was pretty shocked at how good he could play.”
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall will get his first minutes in the bubble tonight, per Stevens. Brad Stevens says he’s progressed nicely with the Celtics over the last few weeks.
Jay King: Robert Williams on Tacko Fall: “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.”
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall on joining the Celtics for the remainder of the season: “It’s a blessing to just be around them and practice around them every day. … I’m seeing myself getting better through these last few practices.”
The Celtics opened up the Auerbach Center for individual player workouts on Monday, and we know of one player who took advantage of the now-open gym: fan favorite Tacko Fall. The Celtics big man has been having a hard time finding a place to work out during the NBA’s coronavirus hiatus. His 7-foot-5 build probably did him no favors while trying to get in a good workout from home, either. But Fall was seen arriving at the Auerbach Center in Brighton on Monday morning, giving Kevin Walsh of NBC a thumbs up as he parked at the facility.
While the NBA season has been on pause for the last two-plus months, Fall has been working out with teammates Grant Williams, Carson Edwards, Semi Ojeleye and Brad Wanamaker via FaceTime and Zoom. He likely got a much better workout in on Monday, given all the features at Boston’s state-of-the-art practice facility.
24 May
Tacko Fall: Who are your top 5 basketball players of all-time? There’s no way I can pick 5, there are so many. From the old school guys, I’m a big fan of Kareem, Bill Russell, Hakeem, Dikembe, Tim Duncan, LeBron…
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall told @60Minutes he “wants to play a leadership role in cleaning up the same sports pipeline he traveled.” Added he plans to continue traveling back to Africa each offseason to talk to players and their families about the U.S. recruitment process.
While the NBA’s inroads in Africa have helped professionalize the basketball landscape in Africa and root out corrupt figures, there are undeniable elements of commerce and self-interest at play. Fall would like to take a leadership role as well. He’d like to regularly return to Africa—as he did last summer—to talk to players and their families about the realities, the promise and peril of the U.S. recruitment process. What would he tell a 16-year-old kid from Africa presented, as he was, with the opportunity to come to the U.S., and then forced to differentiate between forces of good and evil? “It’s hard. It’s hard to do,” he says. “Especially when you’re back home and people come and sell you a dream. It’s hard to turn it down.”
Celtics: Stopping the spread of COVID-19 is going to take a team effort, please take all precautions. pic.twitter.com/RWZt12VZeL
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall will not play for the Red Claws tonight due to a foot injury. He did practice with the team yesterday, but won’t be in uniform vs. Grand Rapids.
Brian Robb: Tremont Waters will be in Maine tonight along with Tacko, Carsen Edwards and Vincent Poirier so the Celtics will have 11 healthy bodies with Kemba on a minutes limit vs. Jazz.
Celtics players have learned they can tease Fall about it just as much as they can tease a reaction out of the crowd. “A few times they were like, ‘Tacko, act like you’re going in and then come back and sit down,’” Fall says of his teammates. “They always say things like that. When we’re in public, people like Grant (Williams) just starts yelling my name like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Tacko!’”
Everybody enjoys the spectacle that is Tacko Mania up close. Fans chant for him when he is not even in the building. Teammates receive a ho-hum response when they appear on the giant video screen compared with the elation a shot of Fall evokes. When supporters actually get a chance to see him in a game or in public? Pandemonium. “They’ve been really good about it and sometimes I feel bad, ’cause I don’t want to take too much attention from the team,” Fall says. “And especially with coach Brad, I don’t want them to see me like Tacko the rock star or Tacko the superstar. If you know me and the person I am, I don’t like to take too much attention away from them. But they actually give me attention, which is crazy.”
“If they had kept the voting the way it was years ago when it was like majority fan votes, I definitely would have rejected it,” Fall says. “There is no way I’m going to take the spot of like a Devin Booker, a Bradley Beal, those people that most people feel like should have been an All-Star. And then you have some rookie who barely plays five minutes a game just take a spot. I didn’t want that to happen.”
Chris Grenham: Stevens: “I think Tacko has improved as much as anybody.”
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall is here at practice with the Celtics.
Malika Andrews: Derrick Jones Jr. said that he expected the judges to make it so there would have been a third “dunk off” round after Aaron Gordon dinked over Tacko Fall: “He clipped Tacko’s head, so they couldn’t give him a 50. I expected them to give him a 48 so we could go again.”
Gordon also lost the 2016 dunk contest in similarly heartbreaking fashion to Zach Levine. “It’s a wrap, bro,” the Orlando Magic forward told reporters afterwards, signaling his dunk contest career is over. “I feel like I should have two trophies. … Jumping over somebody 7-5 and dunking is no easy feat. What did I get, like a 47? Come on, man. What are we doing?”
Fall has played in six games with the Celtics, averaging 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds on 75 percent shooting in short those stints. His per-36 numbers are a sight to behold, but we’ll save that for another day. Fall has taken strides in a variety of areas since the summer, which is promising for Boston considering his unique size. “Tacko’s a different player. It’s unique when you’re trying to come up with a player development plan for Tacko. There’s not many guys to compare him to,” Barlow said. “You can look at guys like Boban (Marjanovic), Rudy Gobert to an extent, but even then Tacko is still six, eight inches standing reach longer than them. He’s done a really good job in the pick-and-roll. I think he’s shown that he’s more mobile than people might have thought.”
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall is here going through a pregame workout. With a Daniel Theis out, it’s likely he’ll be active tonight. Expect Tremont Waters to be active as well.
Chris Forsberg: Celtics have recalled Tacko Fall.
Brad Stevens reacts to the amount of votes for Tacko Fall for All-Star Game: “Obviously he’s played like 10 minutes here, so he shouldn’t be sixth in All-Star voting, but I get it.”
“He’s playing like a dominant force,” Mitchell said. “When he’s decisive and just goes out there and tries to punish people on both ends of the floor, he turns into the All-Star that he is. Nights like this, and nights like Detroit, he did the same thing. He’s playing at a really high level right now.” But will Gobert be an All-Star? That’s the pressing question. He’s averaging 14 points and 14 rebounds per game. His game isn’t flashy. He’s not going to dribble between his legs or throw down highlight dunks. His game, for how impactful it is, is still quiet to the casual fan. It’s the reason why he hasn’t made a dent in the fan vote. It’s the reason why Boston Celtics rookie Tacko Fall has more votes than he does.
Monday night, Fall became one of the tallest conductors in history as he joined the iconic Boston Pops for one of their “Holiday Pops” performances. Wearing a 48 double-extra-long tux — per the Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang – Fall took the conductor’s baton to lead the Pops through a rendition of holiday staple “Sleigh Ride.”
Tim Bontemps: Final: Celtics 119, Hornets 93. Jayson Tatum with a career-high 39 points, Tacko Fall with a couple late dunks and a block, and Boston is in a 3-way tie with the Heat and Raptors for second in the East. Next up? Celtics at Raptors, at noon, on Christmas Day.
Marc D’Amico: This is the best thing you will see all day. I promise.
Marc D’Amico: Brad Stevens just said the only thought going through his head during this moment was that his daughter told him over the phone earlier in the day of Tacko, “It’s time to give the people what they want.” I’m dead lol
Enes Kanter isn’t thinking about the Celtics’ next game. Instead, he pulls out his cellphone to play a video. It’s a snowball fight with his 7-foot-5 teammate Tacko Fall. “I will describe myself as NBA player, human rights activist,” he said. “And a snowball fighter, actually. Yeah, you can include that one.”
A. Sherrod Blakely: The #Celtics are considering calling up Tacko Fall for the Dallas game, according to #Celtics HC Brad Stevens.
Gary Washburn: Tacko Fall and Tremont Waters have been recalled from G-League Maine and are available tonight. #Celtics
Jared Weiss: Celtics announce Tacko Fall will be reassessed in 1-2 weeks after suffering a bone bruise on his right knee Monday. Fall was at the Auerbach Center today and was in good spirits.
Tom Westerholm: Looks like Tacko Fall is with the team tonight.
John Karalis: Tacko Fall will be assigned to the Maine Red chases
Chris Grenham: Tacko Fall has been recalled from Portland, per the Celtics.
The New York Knicks were being blown out by double digits in their home opener, and New York fans had viciously booed Dennis Smith Jr., yet with three minutes remaining in what would be an ugly Knicks loss, the Madison Square Garden crowd was on its feet hollering with excitement. No, the fans were not cheering for their own players. They were chanting for two-way Boston Celtics center Tacko Fall. “We want Tacko!” fans chanted, clapping for emphasis. “We want Tacko!”
While Fall’s size is gawk-worthy, Stevens said he hopes the fans “appreciate him for how good of a kid he is and how hard he is working to make the NBA.” “Everybody is yelling because of his size,” Stevens said. “I get it. Every time he walks in the room, I say, ‘Man, he’s tall’ under my breath. But at the same time, I hope people appreciate him for who he is and how hard he is working.”
Gary Washburn: Tacko Fall IS active for the #Celtics
John Karalis: Tacko Fall just got a custom Canada Goose coat… Which he’ll need in Maine
