Tacko talks: Fall on his rookie season, work in Africa, team chemistry

Boston’s Tacko Fall recently spoke with NBA Africa Game Time to discuss his rookie season, transition to the NBA, and life beyond basketball.

Two way fan favorite Tacko Fall split his time between the Boston Celtics and their G League affiliate Maine Red Claws over his inaugural season in the NBA in 2019-20, garnering unexpected fame while he did so.

And he’s been bending that platform to elevate the profile of basketball in his native Senegal and Africa more generally since, even appearing on “60 Minutes” in an effort to improve the recruiting process for African prospects.

Such a perspective was part of his motivation to interview with NBA Africa’s Sho Madjozi on “NBA Africa Game Time,”  discussing precisely those two threads of the 7-foot-5 big man’s recent history.

On his rookie season being split between two clubs, Fall related that he was not at all off-put by having to shuttle to and from Portland, Maine to Boston.

“The Celtics came up with a plan; they came with a great plan that they thought it would be my best benefit to go back and forth between Boston and the G league because it’s my first year,” he began.

“I had a lot of people ahead of me. So I wouldn’t be getting a lot of playing time anyway. So in order to keep getting better, I had to get the experience. The best way to do it probably would have been to the G League, and they were close.”

Evidently, a roughly two-hour drive for Fall counts as close, but he did blossom as a player with the Red Claws, so the plan seems to have worked. There were some hitches with the ‘Claws facilities, though.

“Maine was [equipped with] a really small gym, so it was always crowded,” explained the UCF product. But unlike many of his Portland teammates, he had the Waltham practice facility to fall back on in Massachusetts.

And while he couldn’t get gym reps in Maine, he could get playing time — and the audiences were pretty intense, too.

“The games were mostly sold out,” Fall offered, “so the atmosphere was great. And I was just seeing myself getting better and better. I had a lot of fun. They did a pretty good job … Both of those experience combined together [were] really, really helpful.”

The vibe with the parent club in Boston also impressed the Senegalese center, reflecting what many analysts believed was at least part of the engine driving the Celtics’ 2019-20 success.

“Personally, I believe we’ve probably got one of the best chemistries is in the NBA, explained Fall. “Everybody takes care of each other; we all have each other’s back.”

He then proceeded to break down a general overview of some of his teammates and how their personalities meshed.

“Kemba [Walker]’s just a good person. In general, the way he treats us is like we are all the same age pretty much, and he takes care of pretty much everybody on the team. He cheers for everyone on the court. He just came in and took on some of that leadership role in addition to other players like [Marcus] Smart.”

And of course Boston’s unofficial captain left quite the impression as well.

“Smart has the heart of the champion, and he’s the tough guy, and then just being alongside him and seeing the type of character that he has, he’s just amazing to see up close,” revealed Fall.

We also learned that while the former Knight had a solid summer workout routine, he was in the shadow of someone even more driven.

“Gordon [Hayward]; I remember when I first got to Boston, Gordon was the first one in the gym every day during the summer.”

“We all have different personalities, but we are together,” he added.

Fall also shared a bit about his return home to Senegal, where he got to catch up with family he hadn’t seen in person for seven years, and even got to meet the country’s president.

“We talked with the president and afterwards we had a press conference,” he began.

“They they start talking to the president in everything and right after they just all the cameras start started shifting … and all of a sudden they all stuck [cameras] in my face,” Fall related, “and all of the sudden I was so nervous.”

And this a man who lived with most of a season of Tacko Mania.

“I try to represent … where I’m from to the best of my capability as a Senegalese and as an African, explained the Celtic big man.

“So, for me to go back home and to see that all the work that I’ve done so far, it’s been noticed, and that a lot of people were starting to look up to me where I still don’t consider myself as a role model — I just try to live my life the best way you know that I can and just try to be as transparent as I can.”

“And for people to look up to that, that just meant a lot to me,” he finished.

We may not have caught our last glimpse of Fall in a Celtics uniform this season with news two way players will be allowed to play at least in any regular season games to be made up when the season is restarted.

And while it seems increasingly likely such a restart will occur in his old stomping ground of Orlando, we’ll have to appreciate it from afar with no audiences in the works for any such resumption of the 2019-20 season under consideration.

But for the Tacko Maniacs among us, Fall has been no stranger to social media nor interviews like this one — be sure to check it out in its entirety in the video linked above.

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