Boston Celtics News: Tacko Fall opens up about rookie year & NBA Bubble

First-year center for the Boston Celtics, Tacko Fall, recently opened up about his rookie season in the NBA and life in the Disney Bubble.

Though the Boston Celtics may have had one of the best cores in the NBA during the 2019-20 campaign, it was an oft unplayed rookie on the team that received a large portion of the spotlight.

7-5 Senegalese supergiant Tacko Fall, who came into the league undrafted, was easily a fan favorite amongst the Boston faithful. Only seeing action on seven separate occasions during the regular season — averaged 3.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, and over a half a block per game on 79 percent shooting –, the 24-year-old spent the majority of his time suiting up for the C’s G-League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws.

There, he posted impressive averages of 12.9 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks a game on 70 percent shooting from the field in 29 games played and, alongside G-League Rookie of the Year Tremont Water, led Main to a record of 28-14, good enough for the fourth seed in their division.

Recently, when talking with C’s team reporter Amanda Pflugrad, Fall opened up about his first season in green & white, praising his experience as nothing short of “great”:

"“Personally, I feel like I had a great, great rookie year. Even the fact that … we added a few more months to it worked in my favor as far as my development went. I was a two way player, I spent a lot of time in the G League, and then in the second half I was more in Boston going back and forth … I appreciate the process. I’ve gotten a lot better.”"

The “few more months” the UCF product is referring to is, of course, the league’s Disney adventure, otherwise known as the NBA Bubble which, to be frank, saved the season as a whole. Though he barely found playing time with the Cs during his rookie campaign, Tacko Fall made the cut to join the official roster on the Boston Celtics and ventured all the way to Lake Buena Vista to witness first-hand their run to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

"“Being in Orlando, especially with the guys that we have — we have a really tight group — I really got to bond with them, especially the guys you saw me with in videos. We used to go to the pool a lot,” he added, the scene of a number of viral Celtics videos coming out of the bubble this summer. “We had to wake up every morning, check your temperature, log it, check your oxygen level and log it in,” explained Fall. “You get tested every day. That’s the one thing I do not miss.”"

Every breath the wunderkind Tacko Fall took was seemingly worth the attention of Celtics fans everywhere during his first year in Beantown. Let’s hope we’ll be seeing him develop with the franchise as his NBA career progresses.