Tacko Fall Leaving NBA, Joining NBL Squad For Remainder of Season

Ricardo Klein | Nov 18, 2024

Dec 10, 2021; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers center Tacko Fall (99) warms up before a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Images / Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

Former NBA center and fan favorite Tacko Fall has found a new home for the 2024-25 season. Fall has officially signed a deal with the New Zealand Breakers of the NBL for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.

Olgun Uluc reported on the news.

Tacko Fall will join the Breakers’ main roster for the remainder of the 2024-25 NBL season, sources told ESPN. He’s been around the team for practically the entire season; so this outcome, of course, is unsurprising. Fall is still recovering from a quad injury, but is expected to… https://t.co/FSsUs6DwUL

— Olgun Uluc (@OlgunUluc) November 18, 2024

Fall initially joined the Breakers for the three games of the club's U.S. tour and signed with the team on Monday for the remainder of the season.

Fall will replace American-big man Freddie Gillespie after he plays his final game with the team on Saturday against the Cairns Taipans. Gillespie leaves the team averaging 6.9 points per game, 5.3 rebounds, and a league-leading 1.8 blocks per game.

Fall leaves the NBA after only playing in 38 career games for the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In those games, he's averaged 2.2 points per game, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.2 assists while shooting 67.3 percent from the field and 32 percent from the charity stripe.

He spent the first two NBA seasons of his career in Boston from 2019-21 and then signed with the Cavaliers for one season during the 2021-22 season. He only played 11 games and started in one in his last NBA season.

The 28-year-old has been rehabilitating a quad injury in New Zealand.

Fall is one of the largest people to ever grace the NBA floor, standing 7-foot-6 and weighing 311 pounds.

The Senegal native made a name for himself at the University of Central Florida from 2015-19. The transition to college basketball was tough at first, but little by little, Fall grew to become an efficient player, as he ranked second nationally in field-goal percentage as of Jan. 2017.

After his third year at UFC, Fall declared for the NBA Draft but later withdrew his name and decided to return to school for his junior year.

Entering his senior year in the 2018-19 season, he was named to the Preseason Second Team All-AAC. During his senior season, Fall helped lead the Knights to the 2019 NCAA tournament and secured their first victory in program history with a win over Virginia Commonwealth University. In his final game, Fall recorded 15 points and six rebounds in a losing effort against Duke University 77–76, one of the best games from the tournament in the last decade.

Fall will look to make a name for himself in the NBL after things in the NBA did not work out.

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