<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I coach Varsity Basketball in New York State. This does not qualify me as a super NBA scout, but I do have a pretty good knowledge of basketball. I just wanted to share with you a few incidents regarding Sebastian Telfair that most people probably have never heard about. Every year the New York City champions travel to Upstate New York and play for the Federation title at the Glens Falls Civic Center. Three years in a row Sebastian Telfair led his team to New York City Public School titles. This is something that has never happened before and likely never will again. He also won a Federation title as a junior and then lost as a senior in his last high school game vs Mount Vernon, a team featuring five division one players.Three different occurances at the Federation Tourney sum up what type of kid Sebastian Telfair is and how different he is from 99% of the McDonald's All american types we see nowadays.A) In his Junior year Telfair led his team to the Federation title and was awarded the MVP trophy during the ceremonies. This is the biggest honor you can receive in New York basketball other than the Mr. Basketball award (Which he won his senior year). However in the championship game the hero in overtime had been his teammate Antonio Pena. After Telfair was handed the MVP trophy, he walked over to Pena, gave him a hug, and then presented him with the MVP trophy, which to this day Pena still has. The place erupted in applause. As a Senior Telfair was absolutely mobbed with young autograph seekers(two of them my children) on the floor of the Civic Center after a semifinal win. I would estimate there were about 50 young kids all hoping for an autograph. It was after 9PM and these were all young kids needing to get home soon. MSG network approaches Telfair just as he had begun to sign autographs. They request he begin a interview which would be seen on the network that night. Now the scene was what interested me. You had a 17 year old being asked to go on TV and have himself shown to a huge audience, while he pondered turning away or delaying signing for 50 kids. Telfair took the gentleman from MSG aside and told him (I heard the whole thing), that he would love to do the interview, but ONLY after every child who wanted to get an autograph had received one. He then proceeded for a good twenty minutes to sign every single autograph. And I don?t mean just a quick signature. This kid looks the children in the eye, asks them how old they are, if they are doing well in school, do they listen to their parents, who is their favorite player, etc? I was stunned. NO ONE does this at age 17, NO ONE.C) In his final game ever in High school Mount Vernon High school badly outplays Lincoln and Telfair loses his chance at repeating as Federation Champions.The next day he will fly to the McDonalds All american game. He already seems a lock to go to the NBA draft and is close to signing a million dollar sneaker contract. He already has won three straight city titles, was named NY state Mr. Basketball, set the Alltime New York state scoring record and is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I would think that most kids in this situation would be disapointed they lost, but more than ready to move on to all these other great things.Not Telfair. He was absolutely inconsolable after the game. Devastated, in tears he clearly could not stand the fact that his team had lost. All he cared about was winning. All he does care about is winning. People knock kids who cry after losing. I remember Bird after losing to Magic in the 79 finals sobbing into a towel. I love kids who cry after a loss, because it tells you where their priorities lie. With Telfair, Bird and probably the Morrison kid everyone is laughing at. At least with these kids you know winning is number one on their list.If Sebastian Telfair does not make it big in the NBA, It will not be due to a lack of heart, smarts, class, court vision or love for the game. I am quite sure if he had gone to Louisville for two years and was in this draft, there is a great chance he would have been picked by Toronto at number one, they badly wanted a point guard. At the absolute worst he would have been a top five pick.I have to laugh when people like Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale are saying Marcus Williams or Randy Foye are better. I would bet anything, if Sebastian was leading either UCONN or Villanova this past year, they wouldn't have been teams that missed the final four. And I seriously doubt either Marcus Williams or Randy Foye would have won three straight New York city titles like Telfair did. He is a winner like no one else who has ever come out of New York City. He led them to three straight city titles when numerous alltime greats have failed to do so. Alcindor, Hawkins, Erving, Anderson, Mullin, Mashburn, etc, have all tried, and no one ever did it.This is the first pure point guard in Boston since Sherman Douglass. But he is much more talented than Sherman ever was.I have been watching New York City point guards for the past 25 years. Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson, Derrick Phelps, Rod Strickland, King Rice, Adrian Autry, Pearl Washington and several others. Not one of these kids was close to Telfair as far a pure god given court vision and awareness. Not even close.This is a case of a kid who was forced financially to come out early. He then goes to the WORST team he could have possibly gone to and far away from home no less. He is just 18 years old and still shows several early flashes for a young kid with no one to dish to. His role models/go to guys on that team are Zach Randolph and Darius Miles?If he had gone to college for two years, which he couldn?t afford to do financially, it would be obvious how good he is. I don?t think anyone in Boston has any idea what is about to happen. Basketball is about to be fun again. Get ready for an array of thread the needle passes, penetration and winning plays. An absolute non stop motor from end to end. The losing ends now. He is special. Ask Lebron James what he thinks of this kid. Ask Shawn Livingston or Dwight Howard. They all know how good he is. It is just a matter of this year or next, it is about to happen. How the Celtics finally had something good happen is beyond my comprehension. But NBA ticket will now have to be purchased in my household. The Celtics are about to be back in a big (or 5' 11") way and I actually want to see it.</div>It was posted on antoher site. Seems a little biased, but it's nice to hear nonetheless.
My favorite part of that whole article is when he gave him MVP award to his teammate. He is a good person.
i believe this. but if hes such a good guy why does he/his girlfriend need a loaded gun?anyways its good to have him out of portland.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fabolous @ Jul 3 2006, 04:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>i believe this. but if hes such a good guy why does he/his girlfriend need a loaded gun?anyways its good to have him out of portland.</div>It has something to do with..where he was raised..The hood of NY..
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (kingjamez @ Jul 3 2006, 04:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>It has something to do with..where he was raised..The hood of NY..</div>I was just about to say that.
I guess one has to be a hard worker to make it to the NBA with his size and backround. He just should have went to college, although I can understand why he went straight to the NBA
He seems like a pretty good kid. I wish he would play with some more maturity though. He's like a less talented version of cousin, Stephon Marbury..
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (kingjamez @ Jul 3 2006, 03:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>It has something to do with..where he was raised..The hood of NY..</div>People from the hood have a greater tendancy to make stupid decisions by breaking state law and NBA policy?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Justice @ Jul 3 2006, 10:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>People from the hood have a greater tendancy to make stupid decisions by breaking state law and NBA policy?</div>The enviorment he was raised in teaches that, you are never safe, your out there by yourself, alone. The majority of the people out there have guns, im sure..It was his girl friends gun, so don't go all. "Telfair broke an NBA law by carrying a gun for his own safety" It wasent his gun.
The more I read up on this kid, the more I love him. I think he's going to be one heck of a player, and a really hope we don't involve him in a deal for Allen Iverson.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gocelts34 @ Jul 3 2006, 11:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The more I read up on this kid, the more I love him. I think he's going to be one heck of a player, and a really hope we don't involve him in a deal for Allen Iverson.</div>If you can get a player like AI you would not trade Telfair? haha wow Well of course other players would have to be included. But I think we can get more from another team then Boston would give us for AI.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gocelts34 @ Jul 3 2006, 11:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The more I read up on this kid, the more I love him. I think he's going to be one heck of a player, and a really hope we don't involve him in a deal for Allen Iverson.</div>You have the same sig as me, not cool lol.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (kingjamez @ Jul 3 2006, 09:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The enviorment he was raised in teaches that, you are never safe, your out there by yourself, alone. The majority of the people out there have guns, im sure..It was his girl friends gun, so don't go all. "Telfair broke an NBA law by carrying a gun for his own safety" It wasent his gun.</div>I don't think having a loaded gun makes him a bad guy. I think attempting to carry a loaded gun onto a plane makes him an idiot, though.I'm not really sure if I believe his story about not knowing it was there... a loaded gun is pretty heavy, normally. Let's assume he was telling the truth, though. Let's assume he was carrying a loaded gun in his pillowcase, but he didn't know it. Whose responsibility is it to know what they are bringing on board? In this case, it was Telfair's.You seem to be implying that he brought it on board for protection, though. It's all fine and dandy to do that if you're boarding a subway or whatever, but you've got to be smart enough to know not to take it on a plane post-9/11. What he did was silly, that's all I'm saying. Maybe I'm just ranting...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Justice @ Jul 4 2006, 04:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't think having a loaded gun makes him a bad guy. I think attempting to carry a loaded gun onto a plane makes him an idiot, though.I'm not really sure if I believe his story about not knowing it was there... a loaded gun is pretty heavy, normally. Let's assume he was telling the truth, though. Let's assume he was carrying a loaded gun in his pillowcase, but he didn't know it. Whose responsibility is it to know what they are bringing on board? In this case, it was Telfair's.You seem to be implying that he brought it on board for protection, though. It's all fine and dandy to do that if you're boarding a subway or whatever, but you've got to be smart enough to know not to take it on a plane post-9/11. What he did was silly, that's all I'm saying. Maybe I'm just ranting...</div>Yea after 9/11 they take everything very serious now.It was stupid to bring the gun on the plane I agree. But they need protection I think with them being basketball players, and especially were he is from.
Maybe I've been being too hard on him. I really hope this guy is right, because the Celtics need help desperately. As for the loaded gun thing, everyone on the Blazers has a gun, smokes weed, or hosts dogfights. Since weed is banned and tested for by the league, and he's too nice to have dogfights, he had to carry a gun. It was probably some type of intitiation the Blazers do.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Living_Legend33 @ Jul 4 2006, 11:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Maybe I've been being too hard on him. I really hope this guy is right, because the Celtics need help desperately. As for the loaded gun thing, everyone on the Blazers has a gun, smokes weed, or hosts dogfights. Since weed is banned and tested for by the league, and he's too nice to have dogfights, he had to carry a gun. It was probably some type of intitiation the Blazers do.</div> :HAHAHA: omg that was funny "everyone on the Blazers has a gun, smokes weed, or hosts dog fights""It was probably some type of intitiation the Blazers do"Priceless
That's the thing about the Blazers, I don't think they are really that much worse than any NBA team in terms of players breaking laws. It's just that the media here in Portland jumps on every little thing they do, every time one of the players gets in an argument, it's headline news here, its gotten ridiculous. But back to Bassy, he really does have a lot of heart. I've heard that him, Martell and Joel were the leaders in the locker room last year, because neither Randolph or Miles cared. Boston got a player that is going to break out this year, I truly believe he was ready last year, he just didn't get an oppurtunity.
This is a great article. I have always loved Sebastian Telfair and im pretty sure he will lead Boston to the playoffs in the years to come. All the hard work in life paid off for Telfair. Good luck in Boston.
