Elhadji Tacko Sereigne Diop Fall was born in Senegal and is now a member of the Boston Celtics.

Fall moved to the United States from Senegal at the age of 16. When he first moved to the States he had absolutely no interest in basketball, in fact, his passion was soccer. He didn’t start playing basketball until around this time, where he first played organized basketball in Houston, Texas and trained with NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem saw that this young man had so much potential, as he was standing 7 feet 6 inches in just high school. During his year at each Liberty Christian Prep and Jamie’s House Charter, he took the country and social media by storm. He was literally “standing out” due to his incredible height and wingspan.

Despite all this attention he was getting nationally he decided to stay in Florida and go to the University of Central Florida. By his second year of college, Fall had averaged the highest field goal percentage in the NCAA, won the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, and was the tallest college basketball player ever at 7’7. By Fall’s senior season he was on the Preseason All-AAC Defensive Second Team. He helped UCF secure their first-ever NCAA tournament win against VCU right before a second-round knockout to Zion Williamson and the Duke Blue Devils in a nail-biting game.

Fall entered into the 2019 NBA Draft after setting records like the tallest player in the NBA with shoes (7’7), longest wingspan (8’2.25), and standing reach (10’2.5), however, he ended not getting drafted, as teams saw him as just a big body with no athletic ability. Then he got interested from the Boston Celtics Summer League team. By the end of the five games in summer league Fall averaged 7.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, and shooting a team-high 77 percent from the field.

Despite everyone saying Fall has no business being in the NBA except to take up space and block shots, Fall continues to develop his low post game and his rebounding and can someday end up being a valuable bench player on a winning team. That might now come this year, or the next, but Tacko Fall is someone that will “stand out” in the NBA for quite some time.