Tacko Fall, formerly of the Boston Celtics
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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - DECEMBER 20: Tacko Fall #99 of the Boston Celtics dribbles against the Detroit Pistons at TD Garden on December 20, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Celtics defeat the Pistons 114-93. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
In the summer of 2019, the Boston Celtics signed a player named Tacko Fall – who had just gone undrafted out of Central Florida – to a two-way contract. He remained with the team for two years, before spending a subsequent year on a similar deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Those three seasons marked both the start and end of his NBA career – or at least, they have done so far.
Fall, however, continues to play high-level basketball around the globe. And as a part of his training for that career, it appears he has taken up another sport.
An image was shared on Instagram by a man named Josh Presley – owner of the Josh Presley Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu School in Halifax, Nova Scotia – showing Fall in full BJJ regalia. According to Presley, Fall is incorporating BJJ into his training regimen; and somehow they found a gi that would fit him.
Tacko Fall, Automatic Celtics Icon
In his time in the NBA, Fall became something of a cult hero. Standing 7’6″ tall, and ranking – per Wikipedia, at least – as the joint-34th tallest person alive, Fall was always going to attract a fandom on his physical profile alone.
This is invariably the case with any of the game’s true giants, which Fall unmistakably was. Even in a league populated almost entirely by giants, Fall stood out for his size. He also however had some skills to go with it, as well as being armed with a winning smile and one of the more memorable names in the league’s history.
In his two Celtics seasons, Fall would not play much. He would appear in 26 games in total, but for an average of only 6.5 minutes per game, and almost all of those minutes came in garbage time. Fall would nevertheless show the impact his size could make by averaging 2.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game in that time, and showed much more on assignment with the Celtics’ G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, for whom he averaged 12.0 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.1 blocks in only 23.3 minutes per game in his first professional season.
As large as he is, Fall is not just a physical specimen. He knows how to play around the rim.
Subsequent World Tour
The NBA is however very much in its pace-and-space era, and all are required to accommodate that accordingly. For one as large as fall, that is not easy to do, and never will be. His career, then, has taken him around the world. Last season, Fall played 18 games in Australia with the New Zealand Breakers (who really do play in the Australian league, despite the name), averaging 11.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, before finishing the year in China and posting a further 11.0/6.6/1.4 in the CBA for Nanjing.
According to the modicum of research done for the benefit of this piece, the tallest professional martial artist currently around is a 7’2 South Korean kickboxer and mixed martial artist named Hongman Choi, while the tallest fighter currently in the UFC is 7’0 Stefan Struve, a brown belt in BJJ. Giants though they are, Fall comfortably clears both.
Of course, there is nothing to suggest that Fall is going to try and make a career of this. For all us outsiders know, this may have been the only session of his life. Nevertheless, even if it was only for one day, Fall almost certainly briefly became the tallest martial artist alive. After all, only 33 others can beat him.