Tacko Fall hinted at which jersey number he plans to wear with the Celtics
Tacko Fall working hard for a bucket. Photo: John Locher/AP |
Tacko Fall’s first tall task will be to make the Boston Celtics roster, but in the meantime he plans to rock the number 99 jersey for the C’s. Tacko mentioned his plans at a recent community event according to John Karalis of masslive.com.
For me, the number 77 would have been a nice play on his 7’7” height, but 99 will do. There have been a couple other Celtics players to wear the number, all within the modern era. Let’s take a peak.
Celtics players to wear No. 99:— Darren Hartwell (@darren_hartwell) August 22, 2019
Roy Rogers (no, not *that* Roy Rogers
Darko Milicic (yes, that Darko Milicic)
Jae Crowder
🌮 https://t.co/OsAnd8fssb
For a kid who grew up with the mid-to-late 90s Celtics, I admit I still did not know who Roy Rogers, Jr. was. Maybe that is because he had a short four-year NBA career after being selected 22nd overall in the 1996 draft by the Vancouver Grizzlies. The power forward played a total of 37 minutes for the Celtics spanning nine games in the 1997-98 season.
The next player to wear the highest number allowed on a sports jersey for the Celtics was Darko Milicic. Darko is famous for landing on a lot of all-time draft bust lists, especially because of who was selected the three following picks. He didn’t make his stamp on the franchise, as he only appeared in one game for five minutes. He had more turnovers (2) as he had shot attempts (1). The most enjoyable part of my Darko research on basketballreference.com is that his nickname is/was The Human Victory Cigar. Who knew?
Lastly, most will remember Jae Crowder with the number 99 on his back as he played more recently. And he actually played. Over 202 games, Crowder averaged a tick under 30 minutes per game. To go along with his hard-nosed defense and sometimes efficient three-point shot, he was a 12 point and 5 rebound player for the C’s. He was also included in the trade that brought Kyrie Irving to Boston, although who knows how we feel about that trade anymore.
Anyway, this was an interesting exercise to check on some former Celtics players. History can be fun. Will Tacko Fall be making more of an impact than the guys on this list? Here’s hoping so.