LAS VEGAS – There’s an intermediate step for Tacko Fall before the NBA, and it has to do with flying commercial instead of on a private charter.

“Most airlines are pretty fine with getting me good seats, like getting exit seats, or try to get first class. Otherwise there’s no way I fit,” the 7-foot-6 Senegalese center said earlier this week, and Thursday was one of the good times.

He folded into a first class seat on the flight from Boston to Las Vegas, and on the way to baggage claim with his summer league teammates and Celtics assistant coaches, realized his celebrity is growing.

The largest man in college basketball – the largest man anywhere – ducked to get on an airport shuttle train, right next to a mother and daughter who scrunched up in front of him in an attempted selfie. The mother frowned. They couldn’t fit Tacko into the shot. He walked on with a patient smile as a trio of girls followed the reluctant pied piper.

Fall knows he’s the largest man anywhere, and the more he attention he gets over the next 10 days, the larger the crowd will grow, along with all of those bad selfie attempts.

But can that size and length count for something in the game he loves?

“If I have my hands out I cover pretty much the whole paint,” he said. “That’s a great advantage.”

Now imagine that extension from someone guarding a pick-and-roll. In theory it could work. But Fall isn’t a nimble giant, at least not yet.

“The biggest thing for him will not be east-west so much because he’s so wide when he gets his arms out,” said Celtics assistant Scott Morrison, who is coaching the summer leaguers. “It will be more north-south in terms of pick-and-roll coverages.

“Can he get up to the level of the screen to make sure that the (Damien) Lillards and (Stephen) Currys of the world can’t get a free shot off and still get back and take away the roller,” he said. “The natural thing for him would be to just stay back and give up that shot on the perimeter, and against some matchups that will be fine, but if he’s going to use his size to be an elite defender, he’s going to have to go north-south in those pick-and-roll coverages.”

Fall has an unheard of 8-foot-2 wing span. His unique tools have drawn the attention of select people.

He wasn’t just watch-listed for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as a Central Florida senior, he was tutored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Fall had the greatest scoring big man in history teaching him the sky hook.

“I use it sometimes. Kareem, I don’t think anybody can get it the way Kareem did, but it’s about working on it. He could hit that by the free throw line,” Fall said. “We worked on a couple of things on defense, and his main thing was using your length to disrupt things, guys coming into the lane, letting them know that’s your paint. You need to protect it.”

Fall also worked out with Hakeem Olajuwon in high school, and wants to reach out to Joel Embiid. Wearing a Celtics jersey reminds him of someone else he’d like to contact.

“One guy I really want to reach out to, especially now that I’m with the Celtics, is Kevin Garnett,” Fall said. “I have not met him yet or talked to him yet, but I want to.”

Fall’s not thin. There’s muscle on his frame, and good strength. His first sparring partner this week was Robert Williams, and in terms of bruises, it’s hard to tell who got the worst of it.

“The first thing you notice is how big he is because Rob looks small compared to him and Rob is good sized,” Morrison said. “But when they started doing some post work, you could tell Rob was feeling his body, hitting him. Tacko’s a big load in there to move, hard to move, and that’s why if he can establish position it will be hard to get him out of there.”

But can he move? Morrison said he didn’t expect the degree of Fall’s agility.

“That was the main thing, the main question mark a lot of people had about me. Even the people from the Celtics were a little surprised,” Fall said. “It was just will – I knew I could get better and wanted to do it. I continuously tried to do it. Other people said you’re that side, you can’t move that way, but I knew I could do it. Something I just put my head down and worked hard, kept working until it came along.”

So Fall works hard on guarding the pick and roll, and using his reach to help disrupt guards.

“Defense is mostly effort,” he said. “I’m gonna guard to disrupt everything pretty much. Great guards in the NBA, you have to contain them. Lot of bigs like Rudy Gobert. He’s not the fastest, but he won defensive player of the year for a reason. He just shows there’s a spot in the NBA for people like me. You don’t necessarily have to be a freak athlete. Just have to know how to play, use your length, and so far the coaches have done a good job teaching me how to cover those types of things. Make sure I trust the guards. As long as everyone does their job…”

It’s almost as if Fall doesn’t realize the power of his reach yet. He only recently started raising those arms consistently.

“Now I’m starting to realize it a little bit more, because I used to play with my hands down a lot,” he said. “Now I can really see it. People are constantly reminding me – you’re long, you’re longer than pretty much everybody in the NBA. Use that length.”

Asked if he knew this for a fact – that no one in the NBA has a greater wingspan – Fall nodded affirmatively. It’s a good place to start.