Sebastian Telfair is preparing to serve six months in prison but is hoping for some help from President Donald Trump.
Telfair was among the former NBA players who were charged in 2021 with defrauding the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan of approximately $358,000 in fake medical and dental claims. The former first-round pick was initially given a three-year suspended sentence that involved supervised release. But he violated the terms of his suspended sentence, which led to him being sentenced in June to six months in prison.
Telfair was getting ready to report to prison and pleaded for the president to step in and pardon him.
“Trump, go check in on my story and you’re definitely going to want to pardon me. You’ll hold me accountable and want me to continue to go do good. But I did too good to being sending anybody to jail,” Telfair argued in comments to a reporter from TMZ.
Telfair contends that his recent issue is due to a paperwork problem. He feels the resulting sentence he’s received is “super unfair.”
Whether President Trump is able to hear his case and pardon him remains to be seen, but Telfair is definitely trying.
Telfair, 40, is from Brooklyn, N.Y., and developed a big following as a teenager due to his strong basketball play. He was the No. 13 overall pick in 2004 by Portland and began his career with them as a 19-year-old straight out of high school.
Telfair played 10 seasons in the NBA and spent time with eight different teams. He averaged 7.4 points and 3.5 assists per game during his career.
