Tacko Fall

Born and raised in Senegal, Fall moved to the United States from Dakar at age 16. Initially, he played soccer and had no interest in basketball. He visited the International Sports Training Institute at Dakar, known as ISTI-Dakar. He first played organized basketball in Houston, Texas, and trained with NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon.[6]

He was listed as 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) and was purportedly still growing around his senior year, making him the tallest high school basketball player in the country while he played for Jamie's House Charter and Liberty Christian Prep.[7] Due to his height and reach, Fall was one of the most highly scouted high school basketball centers in the nation. Fall first played for Jamie's House Charter School in Houston, where his team won the state championship. Fall played with ISTI all-stars summer travel team & for Each 1 Teach 1 on the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) circuit where he played alongside fellow class of 2015 recruits Antonio Blakeney and Ben Simmons.[8] He also played in several NCAA certified events, including the NBPA Top 100 Camp in Virginia.[9] Fall then attended Liberty Christian Preparatory School in Tavares, Florida. As a senior in 2015, Fall averaged 20 points, 15 rebounds, and 5.1 blocks per game. With nearly forty different schools expressing interest in him,[7] Fall committed to the University of Central Florida in Orlando, who officially signed him on October 28, 2014. He played with the UCF Knights under head coach Donnie Jones.[10]

Fall attended the University of Central Florida and played for the Knights as a center. He faced fellow giant Senegalese center Mamadou N'Diaye, who stands at 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m), in the tallest tip-off and match-up in U.S. college basketball history in a game against UC Irvine. Both from Dakar, it was N'Diaye's brother, Ibrahim, who persuaded Fall to take up basketball.[11] By his sophomore year, Fall became the tallest player in college basketball after N'Diaye declared for the 2016 NBA draft. During his sophomore season, Fall would make considerable improvements in his playing style. In 2017, Fall was named American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year.[12] Fall grew to be an efficient player, ranking second nationally in field goal percentage as of January 2017.[13] On April 5, 2017, Fall declared for the 2017 NBA draft, with the possibility of returning to Central Florida still available to him before the end of the draft lottery that year.[14][15] On May 24, 2017, Fall withdrew his name from consideration for the NBA draft, to return to UCF for his junior year.[16] During his junior year, Fall injured his shoulder,[17] causing him to only play in 16 games, totaling 351 minutes.[18] Coming into his senior season, Fall was named to the Preseason Second Team All-AAC. During his senior season, Fall helped lead the Knights to the NCAA Tournament and secured their first victory in program history with a win over VCU.[19] In his final game, Fall recorded 15 points and six rebounds in a losing effort against Duke 77–76.[20]

After the conclusion of his senior year, Fall was named one of 80 participants (40 representing the NBA draft hopefuls) for the NBA G League Elite Camp on May 12–14.[21] By the end of the event, Fall later got transferred into the NBA Draft Combine as one of an additional 11 participants there.[22] During the combine, he put up new records at the event, including height (which received comparisons to former NBA player Manute Bol),[23] wingspan, and standing reach.[24]

Given his size, Fall plays the center position. His shoe size is 22 and his wingspan is 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m)[33] and a standing reach of 10 ft 2 in (3.10 m).[13] He also has a max vertical leap of 2 ft 2.5 in (0.67 m). Unlike the father–son pair of Manute Bol (now deceased) and Bol Bol (9.25 in length, 9.50 in width), Fall has considerably larger hands, measuring 10.5 inches in length and width, which makes him able to palm the ball with one hand.[34]

Going into the 2019 NBA draft, he was viewed as a great shot blocker who was relatively lacking in lane agility and three-quarter-court sprinting speed.[35]

Fall is a devout Muslim;[2] he selected the jersey number 99 with the Celtics as a reference to the 99 Names of Allah.[36] He is not the only tall member of his family; his younger brother was reportedly 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) at age 7, while two of his uncles are 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m), but his extreme height stands apart even among them. He maintained a 4.0 grade point average (GPA) in high school,[37] while taking advanced mathematics and science classes. He became fluent in English within eight months and scored in the 95th percentile on the SAT. He was a computer science major at UCF[13] and originally had aspirations of becoming an engineer for electronic companies such as Siemens or Microsoft.[2]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tacko Fall.

• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com, or Basketball-Reference.com
• Fox Sports New Interview Tacko's first
• UCF Knights bio
• NBADraft.net profile
• DraftExpress.com profile