Sebastian Telfair was predicted to be one of the dominant forces in the NBA, along with LeBron James. The two first met when Telfair was an eighth grader and James was a freshman, and they went head-to-head at the Adidas ABCD camp.
As the two navigated their way up the NBA space, Brooklyn native Telfair led Lincoln High to three New York City championships and a state title while exciting the crowd with his quick handles and scoring prowess, according to TalkSport.
They were featured together on the cover of “SLAM 62: The Takeover” by SLAM Magazine in 2002. “Sebastian Telfair & LeBron James are about to rule the world. Imagine that,” the iconic front cover read. Experts projected them as the pair poised to dominate the NBA landscape. Telfair was considered a five-star recruit in 2004, with experts ranking him as the nation’s No. 2 point guard and No. 6 player.
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Telfair committed to the University of Louisville to play for head coach Rick Pitino. However, following a fatal shooting at an apartment complex where his family lived, he skipped college and went straight to the NBA.
The Portland Trail Blazers drafted him into the league in 2004. James, who had been drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003, would go on to earn four NBA titles, four MVPs, four Finals MVPs, and an all-time scoring record.
Telfair did not have the kind of successful career that James had in the league. When he got drafted by the Blazers, he lasted for only two years. The rest of his career saw him move from one team to another. He went to the Celtics, Timberwolves, Clippers, Cavs, Timberwolves, Suns, and Raptors. He also played in China before returning to play for the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to TalkSport.
Once touted as among the greatest in the NBA, he finished his career with averages of 7.4 points, 3.5 assists, and 1.6 rebounds per game and made more headlines for his off-court life.
His career was hit by a series of legal battles. While at Celtics in 2007, he was arrested and charged with second-degree possession of a handgun and driving with a suspended license after being pulled over by police in Yonkers, N.Y. He received three years of probation after he was found guilty, and the NBA handed him a three-game suspension.
In 2017, a year after his retirement, he was arrested on weapons and marijuana-related charges along with a friend. Two years later, he was found guilty of felonious weapons possession and got three and a half years in prison. The New York Court of Appeals however ordered a new trial for him last year.
In 2021, he was charged with defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan out of about $4 million, along with some other players. He was to face a possible 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty but avoided a jail sentence. Instead, he was handed three years of probation and ordered to forfeit more than $350,000 he received from his fraudulent claims.
Telfair, who once had a promising NBA career, saw it come to an end, and, according to him, he has no one to blame.
“College definitely would’ve helped me,” he said. “I didn’t have the structure. And I would’ve gotten an opportunity to get out of New York for a year without having money. It would’ve filtered a lot of BS that I dealt with early.
“So I can’t say that I wish I didn’t go to college. If I had the opportunity again, I’d take it. But I made my own decision. I don’t have no fingers to point. I don’t have a sneaker contract to blame. I don’t have nobody to blame.”
