Sebastian Telfair Proves Me Wrong
I thought Bassy was going to be an NBA star. I was wrong.
Right now I’m not sure exactly what to think about Sebastian Telfair, the player or the person.
By now you know the latest: Bassy was caught ridin’ dirty with a gun in his car. It’s his second gun incident in two years, and the Celts have announced they’re done with him.
Back in 2005, we were working on SLAM issue 95, and we wanted to do an issue with a lot of the best young players in the NBA. From there we decided to make it almost a theme issue, and we called it “The Come-Up Issue.”
A few weeks before that, I’d started noticing the play of Sebastian Telfair. Bassy was entering his second season with the Blazers, and right out of the gate he’d posted some great games. Against Orlando he went for 20 points and 8 assists with no turnovers in 35 minutes. In the Garden against the Knicks, Bassy finished with 27, 7 and 6.
So when the Come-Up theme was decided upon, we added Bassy to the line-up. And then we figured, Ah, what the hell, let’s put him on the cover. He’d already shared a cover with LeBron a few years earlier, and if this was the Come-Up Issue, who better to represent that generation of developing stars than Bassy?
When it came time to assign a writer to the story, I wanted to write this one. I was at that game at the Garden, watching Bassy play that night, so free and loose and electric, just taking it right at Stephon. It was obvious to me that Sebastian Telfair was going to be a great NBA player for years to come. I was as certain of this as I am that the sky will be blue tomorrow. There are times you see things and you immediately understand a central truth about them. When I saw Bassy, I knew he was going to be a star.
I was going home to Atlanta for Thanksgiving while the Blazers were going to be in town. We called the Blazers and set up a time, then realized we didn’t have anywhere to do the photo shoot. The Blazers were staying at a Four Seasons, and when we called to see about renting out a ballroom, they quoted us a price so astronomical that the ballroom should have come with a harem.
The morning of the shoot, I was supposed to pick up Sebastian Telfair and drive him a few miles away to Philips Arena, where we’d found a spare room in which to do our photo shoot. NBA players are often characterized as enjoying flashy, expensive rides, but Bassy didn’t bat an eye when I rolled up in my Dad’s blue Mercury. I was only in town for a few days, and I didn’t want to bother with renting a car, so my Dad was letting me borrow it to drive around an NBA player. The car isn’t messy, but it is a little old, with an interior light that goes on and off of its own accord.
Bassy and a Blazers p.r. staffer hopped in my chariot and we set of for Philips. It was early in the morning and a little cool, yet Bassy was dressed as if we were at the North Pole. He’d also just strained both groin muscles, so he was walking around with his legs kind of bowed out, like he had just climbed off a horse. I was listening to the local hip-hop station on the radio, and Jeezy’s “Trap Star” came on. Without saying a word, Bassy reached over and turned it up, not too loud, but just loud enough.
After we shot photos for a while, Bassy and I sat down and did the interview. I felt I knew him pretty well—I’d seen the Through The Fire documentary, had met Bassy a few times before, had been to Coney Island with Stephon, had followed Bassy’s high school career through the New York papers.
I started by asking him what it was like for him to grow up on Coney Island.
“People get Coney Island confused,” Bassy said. “Things happen, and there’s a possibility of anything happening, but man, Coney Island is a place of love. I go back there all the time. All summer I’m in the middle of the projects walking in and out of the buildings, and everybody showed me love. Even with a quarter of a million dollars worth of jewelry on, nobody touched me, nothing.”
Why didn’t anyone mess with you?
“For me to do well, it reflects on them. It’s their bragging rights, it shows that one of us is on the top. That’s why they protect me and they support me.”
Of course, about a year after Sebastian said that, he had a chain snatched from around his neck outside a restaurant here in Manhattan.
Back to 2005.
“Coming from the projects,” Sebastian was telling me, “coming from Coney Island, our opportunities is low. There’s not too many role models that come from the projects. And when you’re growing up as a young child, before you know that you can go to school and make something out of yourself, you got so many negatives already put toward you, because everything you see is going to be negative and bad. It can kind of steer you the wrong way. The thing with basketball is, no matter how poor you are, whatever, someone will always have a basketball and there’ll always be a hoop and a basketball. That’s one of our strongest opportunities.”
I asked him if he knew people from Coney Island who gone on to do bigger things.
“I know many people who made it out of Coney Island who became things, like teachers. One of my brothers is a teacher. My coach who coached me at Lincoln, Tiny, is a teacher, and he’s a huge role model. But I don’t know no doctors, I don’t know no lawyers.”
I asked him about the rumor that adidas had put him in Portland.
“I hate that rumor,” he said, looking genuinely upset to even talk about it. “Man, all that work I put in for somebody to take that from me by saying adidas put me in Portland? I mean, if adidas had power like that I think they’d be frying bigger fish than Sebastian Telfair to tell you the truth. That’s just people right there trying to take my work away.”
I asked him what it was like to have people trying to take his work away, having detractors.
“I mean, me, how it was for me was that I was like poster boy until my senior year of high school. Then adidas gave me that money and everybody just, the media just turned on me saying I wasn’t worth all that money. I was like, I ain’t worth all that money? I know you saw everything I was doing, but soon as I got all that money, everything just went wrong. I continued to work and I just went through it. And after I got on the court and proved myself, everything just smoothed out.”
When we finished the interview, we got back in my Dad’s car and had to head over to Georgia Tech, where the Blazers were going to be practicing. Bassy suddenly decided he needed a coffee before practice, so we stopped at a Starbucks, Bassy took our orders and ran in and fetched us all our drinks. Later that night, the biggest football game of the year, Georgia at Georgia Tech, was going down at Tech. When I turned onto the Tech campus, we were confronted by a long row of RVs, all pimped out with grills and flat-screen TVs and UGA or GT flags. People sat outside under retractable awnings in fabric lawn chairs, listening to pregame shows on the radio or just catching up with old friends.
“Wow!” Sebastian said, his eyes wide as he surveyed the colorful scene. It occurred to me that growing up in his concrete jungle, he had probably never seen people tailgate before. I dropped him off, saw him play against the Hawks one day later, wrote the story and then never spoke to Sebastian again. There was no beef there, I somehow just didn’t end up at a Blazers or Celtics game in the last two years.
The thing is, I liked Bassy. He seemed like a cool kid, he was respectful and honest. After spending a lot of time around NBA guys, you get pretty good at reading these guys — which guys want to talk and which guys don’t. You also hear enough stories about various people that you know when a guy is cruising for trouble. I’ve never heard anything bad about Bassy, other than the headlines he’s generated.
As the story came out, Bassy was still fighting through his pulled groins, which robbed him of the quickness that was giving him such a great start. In the story, I wrote:
At press time, Sebastian Telfair had started a little over a dozen NBA games. He hadn’t posted any double-doubles, had played over 35 minutes twice and had five times as many fouls as steals. But there he stands, his black T-Mac 5s so clean they nearly squeak with each step, posing for his first solo SLAM cover. But if this is the come-up issue of SLAM, full of guys who are about to reach or even topple the tipping point, then Sebastian Telfair is right where he belongs.
A few weeks later, a gun was found on the Blazers team plane in Bassy’s pillow. He wasn’t playing well, and over the summer the Blazers moved him to Boston. He had an underwhelming season there, and then this latest gun incident sealed his fate in Boston.
I don’t think his NBA career is over — he’s still just 21 years old, and you can’t teach the kind of quickness that he has. If he can ever recapture the swag he had those two months where he was tearing up the League, he could be an elite point guard.
What I’ll probably never understand is why he was found with a gun, twice. If it’s a safety thing, hire a bodyguard, dude. Otherwise, it’s just asking for trouble to carry a gun around. I know that in both instances the gun allegedly belonged to his girlfriend, but getting caught twice with her gun makes you wonder just how coincidental it all is.
And what really bothers me about all this is that I almost feel like I screwed up. I saw him playing so well, I vouched for him, I interviewed him, and I had no idea his career was going to take such a wrong turn. When I was writing the story, I talked to a few people off the record who knew him pretty well, and every one of them raved about him. So I drank the Kool-Aid too. As his basketball game has slid downhill the last year or so, I’ve watched him from time to time and can’t figure out where the old Bassy went. It’s almost like a different player on the floor. I’m not giving up on him yet, but I thought by now he was going to be a star. So far he’s just been a bust.
So what happened? Where did everything go so wrong? These are the multi-million dollar questions. Can he still straighten out his life? Or will he be another in a long line of urban legends who seem destined for greatness before throwing it all away?
Toward the end of our conversation that day at the photo shoot, I asked Bassy if his life was easier now that he was in the NBA. He laughed before responding.
“No, it don’t get no easier,” Bassy said. “It’s tough. You’ve got a great life, you’ve got money and all that, but in this league right here, it’s tough. The work ethic you’ve got to put in to be successful here, it’s so overwhelming it’s not even funny. There’s a lot more than just going out and playing games.”
82 Responses to “Sebastian Telfair Proves Me Wrong”
Apr.25 at 4:19 pm
Ryan Jones says:
I still blame Dennis Page for this one.
Apr.25 at 4:25 pm
ALX8725 says:
hmm… Bassy wasnt the only thing you were wrong about Lang… *hint hint*
Apr.25 at 4:25 pm
dAnieL Lee says:
Don’t worry Lang, I thought Randolph Childress was going to be a star. Bassy still has time, and the Blazers (psycho) and Celtics (young) were not the right places to be.
Apr.25 at 4:27 pm
dAnieL Lee says:
Lang - I assume as you’re posting you’re not watching Chelsea v Liverpool?
Apr.25 at 4:30 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Bassy obviously forgot to attend the Zach Randolph led gun seminars when he was in Portland. Shame. Z-Bo got caught with TWO guns while speeding in Portland, but a) he wasn’t driving, and b) the guns were registered AND he had a concealed carry permit (which is terrifying in and of itself).
Apr.25 at 4:35 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Does Ricky Rubio carry a gun?
Apr.25 at 4:40 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
No, not watching Chelsea/Liverpool. Working.
Apr.25 at 4:59 pm
Mike says:
Maybe the Hawks should take a chance on Telfair if the Celtics release him. I once read somewhere that the Hawks need a point guard.
Apr.25 at 5:00 pm
Cheryl says:
He needs a mentor, I think. And if he could get with a team with veterans and a discipline-heavy coach, I think he can recapture what seems to have been lost. I read somewhere that he’s supporting like 15 family members financially. That’s a lot of responsibility for a 21 year old, especially if he doesn’t have a mentor to guide him. It is a shame. I, too, thought he’d be one of the young stars of the game.
Apr.25 at 5:04 pm
Jack says:
Chelsea won 1-0. Joe Cole.
Apr.25 at 5:11 pm
joe says:
Mike, is that Mike Woodson?
Apr.25 at 5:14 pm
Mash says:
The Premiership teams are the most boring in the world. This is from a guy who watches about 5 games a week from all the major leagues. So nobody should be watching Chelsea-Liverpool.
Apr.25 at 5:19 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I don’t know, Man U/AC Milan was pretty good yesterday. I’m an Arsenal supporter, but Wayne Rooney is just plain ridiculous.
Apr.25 at 5:37 pm
Tricky Ricky says:
If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it a thousand times, Bassy is not the problem, his wife is.
Apr.25 at 5:38 pm
allenp says:
Atlanta should pick him up unless they get Conley. Bassy for the league minimum would be a good move for them.
Apr.25 at 5:47 pm
Styliztik Jones says:
It’s hard to imagine what Jamel Thomas must be thinking right now.
Apr.25 at 5:51 pm
ALX8725 says:
Manchester UNITED. Wayne Rooney is good, on this rare night Cristiano Ronaldo was just ordinary. If you all managed to catch a glimpse of C.Ronaldo vs. Roma or any other game ManUtd has played this season you’d think C. Ronaldo was the best player in the world right now, and rightfully so. The only other player that can challenge that claim is KaKa’.
Apr.25 at 5:54 pm
Bryant Reeves says:
Cheryl is absolutely right - Bassy needs to be the backup to a quality veteran point (Billups?). He was thrown into the fire WAY too early. Who knows how it would have turned out if he had gone to college…
Apr.25 at 5:55 pm
Nadav Mor says:
Kaka is the Kaka
Apr.25 at 5:56 pm
Sparker says:
nice and honest, lang. really great. sadly, when guys drop off like that, you have to wonder if some kind of substance is involved. on a more facetious note, my question is: who the hell goes out with a woman who carries a piece?
Apr.25 at 6:09 pm
Big L says:
With over 100 issues, SLAM has not had many bad covers. So this was about the 4th or 5th worst cover. I couldn’t believe you put him over Shaun Livingston. There is no way Bassy was playin better than Shaun at that time. I was just upset that I was sent the Bassy cover instead of Dwight’s. Its funny that all the country folk that Bassy was callin out in his doc. (Howard, Jefferson) would end up being much better players than the city kid.
Apr.25 at 6:14 pm
Jas says:
Did it ever occur to anyone that he’s simply not that good? He has good quickness and ballhandling, but that’s about it. There’s nothing that really sets him apart from other point guards. He’s not overly athletic. And he’s playing on a team with a lot of talent in the backcourt (Rondo, West, Green, Pierce etc.), which means he’s not exactly the first option on offence like he was at Lincoln.
Apr.25 at 6:28 pm
Dutch Rich says:
Tricky situation for Bassy. Get’s caught with a piece then get’s caught in Justin’s without a piece. The kid is confused what you gonna do.
Apr.25 at 6:30 pm
Cheryl says:
Hey Sparker–I own a couple, but I’m into it as a sport. I’m a fairly decent shot, too. And I never had problems getting dates! Of course, when you try to leave me…
Apr.25 at 6:31 pm
Detroit11 says:
Bassy should have definitely gone to college. There was a reason that PG’s rarely went straight from high school to the pro’s. PG is the most cerebral position on the court and all the athletic ability in the world can’t teach you the nuances of the position…
Apr.25 at 6:40 pm
... says:
Finally! I was waiting for these lines ever since that LeBron&Bassy cover. Just wanderin’ - how many more losing and tragic seasons does Steph need for you to admit that you overhyped him (he’s not a hundred per cent punk and NBA bust like his young cousin, so the hype thing was obviously done in a little bit different way) even more than Bassy? A piece of advice for Bassy - he can try to make an ACB or Greece A1 team next year, maybe he’ll become a man and learn something about the real (team game, not the street game he’s probably great at) game of basketball…
Apr.25 at 6:41 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
He’s also kind of small. And being drafted as high as he was (not to mention the adidas money he got before playing a single game), he was expected to produce right away. He was pretty much destined to fail in Portland, and then went to an even worse situation in Boston. College probably would have been the best thing for his game, but going pro was the best decision for his family. Who, ironically enough, seem to the be the ones most responsible for ruining his career before it even starts.
Apr.25 at 6:47 pm
Detroit11 says:
I agree Russ. I compare his game to Jameer Nelson, who is about the same height. But Jameer was smart and went to college and even stayed 4 years. I think Jameer said it best when asked why he didn’t come out after his junior year at St. Joes, he said “I’ve been poor for 21 years of my life, what’s one more year?”. Bassy should have took heed to those words…..
Apr.25 at 6:48 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Jameer is also as wide as he is tall. He’s STRONG. Mentally and physically.
Apr.25 at 7:00 pm
Shiz says:
just give him time. He still just a youngin. hopefully he wont gun-charge his way outta the league before his game matures.
Apr.25 at 7:43 pm
IllyPhilly6 says:
Bassy sucks. Can’t believe he shared a cover with D12 and Bron, when no Utah Jazz player ever graced a cover.
Apr.25 at 8:01 pm
Mike says:
f*ck utah i hate when guys who aren’t in the L say a guy who made it to the L sucks…you suck…bassy will be ok
Apr.25 at 8:05 pm
Mike says:
one more thing…the media…you guys…guys that hype up the next ones…you create that hype and when a case like bassy’s comes along where he makes mistakes…the hype is immediately gone and he is a bust…bassy was once written about in your pages as a lebron equal and now to you guys…the writers at SLAM you treat him like a joke…no respect for the individual who is supporting all of those family members…like you said…you thought he was a good guy and you like the kid…but now…because his game isn’t going right at this time you abandon the kid who you built up
Apr.25 at 8:08 pm
Orlando says:
First…thank god new Utah Jazz players have been on the cover..dude you play for that team and its on your contract…no SLAM…lol….second….the only good about the TEF issue was that some dude was able to show SLAM about in the next issue about how TEF was just shit…and that he rode the pine behind Steve Blake….Where is blake now….playoffs…starting…alongside AI and Melo….TEF needs to go to the D-league.
Apr.25 at 8:43 pm
Chris says:
I can see New York signing him….never know when youll need a fourth string point gaurd
Apr.25 at 8:43 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
If you were to invent a basketball player from scratch specifically for the purpose of him being hyped up by SLAM magazine, you would invent Bassy. In fairness, he was playing well before guns on a plane. And he should never have been taken with such a high pick.
Apr.25 at 9:01 pm
jaydub114 says:
I remember watching that game against NY in his second year. I sat there court side thinking that he is finally gonna live up to the hype. I guess i was wrong, but i hope this situation motivates him to work harder. The last two seasons he has been given the starting PG job, he didn’t have to work for it. Now he has to work to stay in this league. He needs differentiate himself from a player whose dream it was to make the NBA to a player whose dream it was to succeed in the NBA.
Apr.25 at 9:35 pm
Rucious says:
Man I can’t wait to see Bassy and Lenny Cooke playing at the Rucker with Dajuan Wagner at the 2 spot. OHHHHHHHHHH SNAP!
Apr.25 at 10:22 pm
maclovenotwar says:
i’m with cheryl and big country, mentor him up. could he fit in cleveland behind snow and wesley, or with raefer (9 years his senior) in houston?
Apr.25 at 10:29 pm
Chris T. says:
I think you’re giving up on the kid too soon. He probably will never go done as one of the greatest PG’s ever, but I think he can develop a pretty solid career. He just needs to go to a city that has a good point guard and a good team chemistry. Portland is a terrible situation for any player and Boston is just too young. He needs guidance more-so than playing time.
Apr.25 at 10:34 pm
maclovenotwar says:
wait!
send him to the nuggets…
wouldn’t iverson be the perfect candidate to straighten out telfair? There are (loose) similarities there, A.I.’s 10 years older than him, and if successful melo would have his point man for years to come…
Apr.25 at 11:11 pm
tike says:
hey give bassy a break he’s still young and there he wasnt overhyped kid could flat-out play thats for sure…i say he could of maybe should of went 2 college for a year…hey lang i had a sick dream you were at my crib in pittsburgh smoking trees!..that dream was crazy!
Apr.25 at 11:53 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Houston behind Rafer would make some sense. He’d love Van Grumpy.
Apr.26 at 1:11 am
Caputo says:
I saw Sebastion Telair play at Gaucho Gym during my senior year in high school. I wasn’t sure about him then. If I heard correctly, Darius Washington, undrafted after two years at Memphis, gave him worked Telfair in high school. Does it seem that half the guys who went from high school to the NBA didn’t understand the commitment it took after making the NBA to stay in the NBA?????
Apr.26 at 1:15 am
Miggy says:
i got to be around Bassy when he visited Manila back in ‘05. the thing i remember most was that he was very down-to-earth. he was here for the adidas streetball tourney and he really helped the kids, joked around with them and showed em a move or two. respectful, humble, down-to-earth. what a waste… i hope another team signs him. like… denver! haha!
Apr.26 at 4:33 am
guti says:
bassy to the lakers
Apr.26 at 8:06 am
David says:
Bassy’s girlfriend must be pretty gangster. I wonder why she’s sending guns with him on the road. You’d expect things like candy, or a photograph, or note or something. What kind of a message is she trying to send? “Don’t forget about me while you’re away”
Apr.26 at 11:31 am
Shiz says:
PJ hates little guards. He’ll sign a broke-down Penny before a broke up Bassy. Bassy’d fair better in Atl where they can get out and run the break without having to worry about actually winning a game.
Apr.26 at 11:51 am
Cheez says:
Got to see Bassy play for the Blazers in the Utah Summer League right after he was drafted… I thought he was going to be a player too… was driving with ease, getting to the line, setting up his teammates… just brought a lot of electricity to the gym… but it’s too early to say he’s a complete bust yet… granted he hasn’t shown much, but we need to give the high school kids an extra grace period… not everyone is LeBron… some of those cats take longer to develop on AND off the court… JO took four seasons to breakout… look at Louis Williams for the Sixers… high school super stud… everyone was on his case after his rookie year… he wasn’t doing anything the first half of this season, then all of a sudden he started to get it and played well over the final two months… Telfair has a lot of work to do, but I’m not ready to say he’s never going to be a factor in the NBA… he may never be a star, but he could carve himself out a niche… as for the size complaints, how’s brevin knight doing (when he’s healthy at least!)? Maybe with a little more seasoning, that’s the type of player Bassy could become… at least he doesn’t have the ridiculous expectations hanging over his head anymore since everyone’s written him off.
Apr.26 at 12:15 pm
tike says:
i guess Lang doesnt comment on his on topics…nice job
Apr.26 at 12:16 pm
Ben Osborne says:
I think he would not only be a good back-up to Rafer but that he will BE the next Rafer. Not that Rafer is a star, but after years of struggling Rafer became a very solid NBA PG, and I think Bassy has it in him to become one too. No excuse for the gun charges, but bball-wise, he’s been in some bad spots. Danny Ainge sucks.
Apr.26 at 12:26 pm
Maurice Garland says:
I’d like to see my Hawks take a chance on him but two things would have to happen first…M. Woodson would have to be fired because he cant even handle S. Stoudamire and J. Smiths’s personalities, we’d need a coach who can handle egos (Carlise or Porter anybody?, unfortunately, the paper just said the owners arent firing Woodson because he deserves another chance after an injury prone season, BLAH! Secondly…either every club in Atlanta would have to be shut down or the Hawks will have to be banned from the clubs…a 21-year old Telfair will get in 10 times as much trouble here in the A, either that or his extra-curricular activities will effect his already questionable gameplay even more….I mean, there is a reason why Harrington is ballin in GS and B. Diaw got good in Phoenix…Atlanta has too many distractions….word to Isiah Rider…
Apr.26 at 12:40 pm
fly wes says:
bassy should have went 2 college 4 a year amd then went 2 the nba because he is not doin anything but takein up space. ps. he is makin brooklyn look bad lol
Apr.26 at 1:30 pm
Michael says:
My advice to Bassy; Get a new girl.
Apr.26 at 1:59 pm
escott ingles says:
Ain’t nothing wrong with Bassy. He got caught with a gun - so what?
Apr.26 at 2:50 pm
Coney Island High says:
This is SLAM’s fault. This is what you get for trying to find younger and younger players to hype up. If it wasn’t for you, he would have gone to college, maybe learned a thing or two in a classroom, maybe learned that if you drive you need a liscence. maybe he would have learned not to be so scared of the world that he needs a loaded gun at all times. But no, you needed to feel cool going to Coney, taking a picture, and then writing all about it for your fellow whiteys.
Apr.26 at 3:00 pm
Jake says:
You guys are all wrong. Bassy got arrested on purpose so he could get out of his contract with the Celtics! BROOKLYN STAND UP!
Apr.26 at 3:10 pm
Sparker says:
cheryl, this ia a day late so u might miss it… but that was funny
Apr.26 at 3:15 pm
Corey Isaacs says:
I think if some team picks him up and gives him a chance to start for a few consecutive games, Telfair might be a threat. As far as the gun charges, that’s just stupidity. He don’t live in the Hood no more, why does he have to carry a gun if his people “love him” so much.
Apr.26 at 3:26 pm
martymcfly says:
lang, i refuse to believe that you wrote that. that thing was painful to read.
Apr.26 at 4:12 pm
Ang says:
I blame the Jailblazers.
Apr.26 at 6:02 pm
Seph says:
Perfect example of a guy who needed a couple years in college to mature. To be 18 and throw into the NBA circus is a staggering adjustment. It’s easy to see how someone in his shoes would make a few poor decisions along the way, even if he is a good kid.
Apr.26 at 7:09 pm
tool says:
i hope he turns out a good player, he just needs a right team, this year at the begining of the year he showed really good signs, but i don’t think i will give up on him.
Apr.26 at 8:48 pm
Dennard C says:
I don’t think anyone has bailed on Bassy. Dude can still play and there are some deficiencies in his game, but he just needs to stop getting caught up on the streets.
Apr.26 at 10:08 pm
Poona says:
I was in NYC for that game Bassy played against the Knicks. I remember Zach Randolph was still struggling a bit after coming off knee surgery, but Bassy kept them in it right til the end, putting up some crazy shots, including one where he hung in the air for what seemed like forever, drew contact and just flipped the ball up and in. The Knicks came back to win it(Channing Frye got them back into it I think), but all the talk afterwards was about Sebastian Telfair
Apr.26 at 10:30 pm
chronically_ill says:
Maybe Bassy would shine if he played for a coach who knew how to use him. Look what don nelson did for monta ellis.
Apr.27 at 1:35 am
jaydub114 says:
^^^^
I agree. Don Nelson plays a free flowing offense. Telfair would actually be semi successful on Golden State.
Apr.27 at 10:39 am
Sesa says:
Lang, I really think Money and Fame can change a person. My thought is he really can’t stand the pressure.
Apr.27 at 10:52 am
Quantessential says:
I think he can handle the pressure. But he needs shut out everybody. He got to do like Shaq and realize that he got grown man business to attend to. Put down the guns and pick up the ball and go to work.
Apr.27 at 5:45 pm
Maurice Wheeler says:
I hope Bassy can salvage his career…otherwise all you gonna hear is he should’ve went to college
Apr.27 at 8:38 pm
KMART6 says:
BASSY shouldn’t have have gone to he was good straight outta HS but needed more time straight away but he didn’t get as much as he use to so his confidence went down then he got traded and it went down again and then he got put behind a rookie and Delonte in the depth chart he just needs confidence because he plays on confidence so if he was going to be traded he should go somewhere were he will either start or be on a winning team but he hasn’t had before.
Apr.27 at 8:38 pm
KMART6 says:
shouldn’t of had to of gone to college my bad
Apr.28 at 3:51 am
Bobbbbby says:
Rooney is such a bad face of british football, amazing talent and heart though.
Apr.29 at 6:35 pm
Franky says:
Bassy is still a kid…maybe a scared kid, who did not yet grasp the whole multi-millionar dollar contract thing,,,But, I don´t think that a gun should seal the fate of a very talented player..NRA(unlike the NBA) would agree, Don´t you think:D
Apr.30 at 12:56 am
Hizzle says:
The thing with our entertainment nowadays is that we want everything to be instant. Instant superstars, instant playoff berths, instant chemistry. We just have to realize, nothing is instant, nobody saw Steve Nash MVPing it twice when he was with Dallas, why jump to conclusions so quick about Bassy being good OR being bad?
Apr.30 at 7:05 am
RedRum says:
sorry to say but Telfair represents what is wrong with the NBA (and Slam in some ways…) Overhype of mediocre players who do not understand the basics of basketball and do not know how to play the game to win, rather than wow mags and fans.
Apr.30 at 8:19 am
chris midd says:
after watching through the fire (which i’ve seen a million and one times) i was determined to make it pro right out of high school but after seeing the movie now he had no competition thats why he had alot of dimes and points now i know you say no comp. he lived in new york but here me out he worked so hard to make it pro that when he did it he thought his work was done but if he would have went to college he would have matured into a player like his older cousin stephon
Apr.30 at 1:11 pm
k says:
telfair is nice give him some props
Oct.14 at 12:13 am
ello says:
i think he is going to have a good season with the t-wolves
Nov.18 at 9:36 pm
bassy31fan says:
hey bassy is still young man dont be hatin on him he just needs to find the right team…guaruntee he still becomes an allstar…
Apr.5 at 5:17 pm
joe johnson says:
Bassy is dirty and will be more dirty. His scoring will come but one thing you need in a point guard is assists. Rondo has kg rayray and paul and bassy gets more assists than him which is crazy. He is going to be sick in two years. mark my words.
Jul.4 at 5:06 pm
joe johnson says:
just needs a home. I think denver would be good for him