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Former NBA star Sebastian Telfair is going to prison. He didn’t have to go to prison. All he had to do was a few simple things. But he didn’t do them.
The 10-year NBA veteran point guard was one of 18 former NBA players who were arrested for fraud in 2021. At the time, we referred to those players as possibly being the dumbest criminals alive. Now, with this latest news about Sebastian Telfair, they appear to have gotten even dumber.
According to Sportico, Telfair is going to prison now because he failed to meet the terms of his supervised release. Those terms included completing court-ordered community service and reporting to the U.S. Probation Office.
Sebastian Telfair, unlike former NBA players Terrence Williams, Glen Davis, Keyon Dooling and Alan Anderson, got off with a suspended prison sentence. All he had to do was follow the rules of his release.
Now the 40-year-old cousin of Stephon Marbury, who earned around $19 million playing in the NBA, is headed to prison, Law360 reports.
Why? Telfair apologized to the judge during his hearing and admitted missing appointments with his probation officer. He also told the judge that he has been trying to improve as a person and was undergoing training for a job in construction.
The judge, Valerie E. Caproni, disagreed, telling Sebastian Telfair that he had done “absolutely nothing” to get a job and “thumbed [his] nose at [his] probation officer and me over and over.” He also reportedly hasn’t made much in the way of restitution.
Telfair and 17 other former NBA players were charged in 2021 with defrauding the NBA’s health and welfare benefit plan out of about $4 million by submitting false dental claims.
During his 10-year NBA career, he played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves (twice), Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, and Oklahoma City Thunder. He also had stints with Tianjin Ronggang, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, and the Fujian Sturgeons in the Chinese Basketball Association.
Prior to being drafted thirteenth overall in the 2004 NBA draft by the Blazers, Telfair had been named Mr. Basketball USA, New York Mr. Basketball, and the McDonald’s All-American Game MVP. He had committed to the University of Louisville, but instead chose to declare for the draft after high school.