A vow to help African athletes
Former UCF star Fall featured on ‘60 Minutes’
Former UCF basketball star Tacko Fall told “60 Minutes” he wants to help fellow African athletes learn how to navigate American recruiting efforts he said often exploit them.
Fall was featured on the news show Sunday night during a segment that examined how a pipeline of African athletes are steered to various American high schools and academies.
The athletes are often recruited with the promise of playing for one school that helped them secure an F-1 visa using an I-20 application. When they land in the United States, the athletes can be redirected to other schools, losing their visa in the process.
A “60 Minutes” investigation found coaches and agents pay schools to apply for the visas on their behalf and then redirect the athletes to either help a high school perform at an elite level or an agent one day cash in on the athletes’ professional wages.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement relies on teens in a new country to resolve their visa issues once they end up at a different school that invalidated their paperwork, according to “60 Minutes.”
Fall said he was supposed to go to school in Texas, but he was sent to another school and was in the country illegally with an invalid visa.
He eventually landed at Liberty Christian Prep in Tavares and the school helped him sort out his visa issues.
The 7-foot-5 charismatic athlete eventually made it to UCF and steadily improved before earning a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics and Maine Red Claws. He has become a fan favorite, but he said he is one of the fortunate ones who got help he needed to live out his basketball American dream.
“There’s been many times where I feel like some people have been taken advantage of, where they bring them here and that’s it,” Fall said of the pipeline that brings young African athletes to the U.S. but doesn’t make sure they land at a viable school. “And then they’re just left on their own. If things don’t work out, then they are pretty much screwed.”
The news program highlighted Evelyn Mack Academy, which was shut down after a government investigation into the school obtaining visas for 70 international students who never enrolled at the school and instead were redirected to other schools by coaches and agents.
Fall said he planned to return to Africa during the NBA offseason to help team others learn how to avoid exploitation.
When asked what he would say to 16-year-olds in Africa considering the same journey he made from Senegal to the United States, Fall responded, “It’s hard. It’s hard to do, especially when you’re back home and people try to sell you a dream. It’s hard to turn it down.”