Sebastian Telfair 's basketball journey started with a lot of promise, but did not turn out as well as expected in the pros. He admitted that had he gone to college, things could have been different.
Sebastian was a star player at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn , known for his quick handles and explosive scoring. He led the school to three New York City championships and a state title.
He was so impressive in high school that he, along with LeBron James , was hailed by many pundits as the next big thing in the NBA.
The 6'0" guard committed to play at Louisville under coach Rick Pitino in college, but decided to forego it and go straight to the NBA.
It was a decision that he looked back on with regret, realizing that the structure that college could have given him would have helped him better handle his career moving forward.
"College definitely would've helped me. 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," Telfair told SLAM in an interview.
But he said he was taking full responsibility for his decision and that there is no sense in crying over what was already done.
"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," he added.
While LeBron went on to fulfill his destiny as an NBA great, Bassy saw his path take the journeyman route. It did not help either that he had his legal troubles throughout his career.
The Portland Trail Blazers selected him 13th overall in the 2004 NBA Draft. After two seasons in the Rose City, he was traded to the Boston Celtics , where he eventually wore out his welcome after just one season. He was arrested and charged with second-degree possession of a gun and driving with a suspended license in New York. Telfair received three years' probation after pleading guilty.
Following Boston, "Bassy" played a season with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010-11, then a season and a half with the Phoenix Suns . He then split time with the Toronto Raptors and the Oklahoma City Thunder in his final one and a half seasons before calling it a career in 2015.
Telfair continued to be involved in legal issues after the NBA. In 2017, he and another man were stopped in Brooklyn for driving without lights on and illegally parking. Following a police search, they were arrested on weapons and marijuana-related charges.
In April 2019, Sebastian was found guilty of criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Then, in 2021, he was one of the former NBA players charged with defrauding the league's health and welfare benefit plan of around $4 million. In March 2023, "Bassy" pleaded guilty to the charge and faced a 20-year prison sentence.
But in January 2024, he was given time served plus three years supervised release. In August 2025, he was ordered to prison for six months for failing to do community service and report to the U.S. Probation Office.
He was released earlier in December 2025 instead of his expected February 2026 release date for good behavior.
"I'm so grateful right now. And it took for me to be in there. You at your lowest when you in jail. And you got people saying like they want to talk to you, like they want to like just hear a story about your life… I was sitting there like, 'Bro, get your s—t together. That's definitely not a place for me,'" Sebastian shared on "The Pivot" podcast of the realizations he had while in prison.
Whether Telfair would have done better in his career if he had gone to college is already moot. But, good thing for him, there is still time to change his ways and better his life.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Feb 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
