Telfair may be all out of 2nd chances
By MITCH LAWRENCE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS COLUMNIST
Thursday, April 26th 2007, 4:00 AM
Sebastian Telfair is caught again traveling with a gun, and Celtics have made it clear he can take a hike.
With his locker cleaned out and his nameplate removed from the practice facility locker room, Sebastian Telfair is a Boston Celtic in name only now, a victim of his own poor judgment.
His next destination is unknown. Whether anybody even wants to take a chance on him at this stage, with his history of arrests involving guns and a thoroughly unimpressive NBA résumé, is debatable. How he gets to his next NBA team, whether via a trade or as a free agent in the coming months, is just as foggy.
All that can be definitively deduced from the events of the past few days is that the Celtics are done with him after only one season, and the myth of the great New York City point guard has been shattered once again.
Nobody was built up more around here than Telfair. Unreasonable as the expectations were three springs ago, he was supposed to go directly from Lincoln High and Daily News Player of the Year to the pros, no sweat. The fact that he was a 6-foot guard without a jumper and very little knowledge of what it takes to run a team was enthusiastically overlooked by everyone who continues to promote the lie that New York City produces the world's finest playmakers.
Take a look at the origins of the point guards starring in the 2007 NBA playoffs and the very best hail from British Columbia (Steve Nash), Alameda/Oakland (Jason Kidd) and Santa Monica/L.A. (Baron Davis). To call those places "outer boroughs" would be a stretch.
As much as Telfair's rap sheet is working against him, his birth certificate is still in his favor. He doesn't turn 22 until June, so if a team has enough talent at other spots to hide his glaring deficiencies, it might take a chance on him. And if a team wants to run, there are few players who are as fast as Telfair is with the basketball in his hands.
It sounds like a ridiculously tough fit, but Denver, Orlando and Minnesota are already being mentioned as possible new homes.
"I would think that the Celtics will try to get something for him," one Eastern Conference executive said yesterday. "Once things settle down, I could see them looking to put him in a trade, being a guy who's included in a deal to make the numbers work. But somebody will take a shot on him. He's young and he made a mistake."
He isn't the first, but Telfair is up to three mistakes over the last year and change. When he was pulled over last Friday for speeding in Yonkers, police found a loaded .45-caliber Colt semiautomatic handgun in his car. He was driving with a suspended Florida driver's license and now faces a potential felony charge for weapons possession.
By removing any signs of his existence, the Celtics have let Telfair know exactly where he stands. "An extra slap on the wrist" was how one team executive put it. More like a final slap. Teams have wised up and aren't going to put up with antics that turn off their season ticket-holders and corporate sponsors. Not from guys who can't play a lick.
"It is fair to say that if the charges were true, it wouldn't make me too proud to have somebody I know who was speeding without a license and with a gun in the trunk," commissioner David Stern said Tuesday night, commenting on Telfair's case. "I don't know what the ultimate disposition of that is going to be, but our players do have an obligation to conduct themselves in a way that demonstrates the appropriate respect for the game."
You have to wonder if Telfair is aware of that obligation or oblivious to it, like many other athletes. Fourteen months ago, he boarded the Trail Blazers' charter plane with a pillowcase that contained a handgun. Naturally, police wanted to know why. Here in New York last October, he was questioned by police about the shooting of the rapper Fabolous, after a $50,000 necklace was stolen from Telfair at the same club the night Fabolous was shot. His poor judgment isn't limited to making the wrong reads on the court.
Meanwhile, the Blazers must be having themselves a good laugh. Last June they traded Telfair and converted a draft pick in the deal into Brandon Roy, a guard who is expected to win Rookie of the Year honors in a walk and has the look of a perennial All-Star. He can even play some point and, as any New York hoop fan will tell you, he's from another one of those "outer boroughs."
Seattle.