Telfair - glowing quotes from another coach (from RealGM)

Mon Jul 3 11:30:07 CDT 2006

This was posted on the Yahoo List...

-----Original Message-----
From: Celticsstuffgroup at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Celticsstuffgroup at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of JB
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 8:38 AM
To: Celtics Stuff
Subject: [Celtics' Stuff ] "The losing ends now. He is
special."-CelticsGreen

Bill Simmons the Sports Guy posted this on CelticsBlog and I thought it was
worth sharing.  I agree with the Sports Guy... I am a little excited to see
him play.

Hey everyone...

Thought you guys would enjoy this email I received from a reader  
about Telfair yesterday... it definitely got me a little more excited  
for the Telfair Era.

--Simmons

*************

subj = Sports Guy mail
comment = I coach Varsity Basketball in New York State. This does not  
qualify me as a super NBA scout, but I do have a pretty good  
knowledge of basketball. I just wanted to share with you a few  
incidents regarding Sebastian Telfair that most people probably have  
never heard about. Every year the New York City champions travel to  
Upstate New York and play for the Federation title at the Glens Falls  
Civic Center. Three years in a row Sebastian Telfair led his team to  
New York City Public School titles. This is something that has never  
happened before and likely never will again. He also won a Federation  
title as a junior and then lost as a senior in his last high school  
game vs Mount Vernon, a team featuring five division one players.

Three different occurances at the Federation Tourney sum up what type  
of kid Sebastian Telfair is and how different he is from 99% of the  
McDonald's All american types we see nowadays.

A) In his Junior year Telfair led his team to the Federation title  
and was awarded the MVP trophy during the ceremonies. This is the  
biggest honor you can receive in New York basketball other than the  
Mr. Basketball award (Which he won his senior year). However in the  
championship game the hero in overtime had been his teammate Antonio  
Pena. After Telfair was handed the MVP trophy, he walked over to  
Pena, gave him a hug, and then presented him with the MVP trophy,  
which to this day Pena still has. The place erupted in applause.

B) As a Senior Telfair was absolutely mobbed with young autograph  
seekers(two of them my children) on the floor of the Civic Center  
after a semifinal win. I would estimate there were about 50 young  
kids all hoping for an autograph. It was after 9PM and these were all  
young kids needing to get home soon. MSG network approaches Telfair  
just as he had begun to sign autographs. They request he begin a  
interview which would be seen on the network that night. Now the  
scene was what interested me. You had a 17 year old being asked to go  
on TV and have himself shown to a huge audience, while he pondered  
turning away or delaying signing for 50 kids. Telfair took the  
gentleman from MSG aside and told him that he would love to do the  
interview, but ONLY after every child who wanted to get an autograph  
had received one. He then proceeded for a good twenty minutes to sign  
every single autograph. And I don't mean just a quick signature. This  
kid looks the children in the eye, asks them how old they are, if  
they are doing well in school, do they listen to their parents, who  
is their favorite player, etc? I was stunned. NO ONE does this at age  
17, NO ONE.

C) In his final game ever in High school Mount Vernon High school  
badly outplays Lincoln and Telfair loses his chance at repeating as  
Federation Champions.

The next day he will fly to the McDonalds All american game. He  
already seems a lock to go to the NBA draft and is close to signing a  
million dollar sneaker contract. He already has won three straight  
city titles, was named NY state Mr. Basketball, set the Alltime New  
York state scoring record and is on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  
I would think that most kids in this situation would be disapointed  
they lost, but more than ready to move on to all these other great  
things.

Not Telfair. He was absolutely inconsolable after the game.  
Devastated, in tears he clearly could not stand the fact that his  
team had lost. All he cared about was winning. All he does care about  
is winning. People knock kids who cry after losing. I remember Bird  
after losing to Magic in the 79 finals sobbing into a towel. I love  
kids who cry after a loss, because it tells you where their  
priorities lie. With Telfair, Bird and probably the Morrison kid  
everyone is laughing at. At least with these kids you know winning is  
number one on their list.

If Sebastian Telfair does not make it big in the NBA, It will not be  
due to a lack of heart, smarts, class, court vision or love for the  
game. I am quite sure if he had gone to Louisville for two years and  
was in this draft, there is a great chance he would have been picked  
by Toronto at number one, they badly wanted a point guard. At the  
absolute worst he would have been a top five pick.

I have to laugh when people like Jay Bilas and (censored) Vitale are  
saying Marcus Williams or Randy Foye are better. I would bet  
anything, if Sebastian was leading either UCONN or Villanova this  
past year, they wouldn't have been teams that missed the final four.  
And I seriously doubt either Marcus Williams or Randy Foye would have  
won three straight New York city titles like Telfair did. He is a  
winner like no one else who has ever come out of New York City. He  
led them to three straight city titles when numerous alltime greats  
have failed to do so. Alcindor, Hawkins, Erving, Anderson, Mullin,  
Mashburn, etc, have all tried, and no one ever did it.

This is the first pure point guard in Boston since Sherman Douglass.  
But he is much more talented than Sherman ever was.

I have been watching New York City point guards for the past 25  
years. Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson, Derrick Phelps, Rod Strickland,  
King Rice, Adrian Autry, Pearl Washington and several others. Not one  
of these kids was close to Telfair as far a pure god given court  
vision and awareness. Not even close.

This is a case of a kid who was forced financially to come out early.  
He then goes to the WORST team he could have possibly gone to and far  
away from home no less. He is just 18 years old and still shows  
several early flashes for a young kid with no one to dish to. His  
role models/go to guys on that team are Zach Randolph and Darius Miles?

If he had gone to college for two years, which he couldn't afford to  
do financially, it would be obvious how good he is. I don't think  
anyone in Boston has any idea what is about to happen. Basketball is  
about to be fun again. Get ready for an array of thread the needle  
passes, penetration and winning plays. An absolute non stop motor  
from end to end. The losing ends now. He is special. Ask Lebron James  
what he thinks of this kid. Ask Shawn Livingston or Dwight Howard.  
They all know how good he is. It is just a matter of this year or  
next, it is about to happen. How the Celtics finally had something  
good happen is beyond my comprehension. But NBA ticket will now have  
to be purchased in my household. The Celtics are about to be back in  
a big (or 5' 11&quot;) way and I actually want to see it. [/size][/ 
quote]
**END**
[/quote]

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-----Original Message-----
From: celtics-bounces at igtc.com [mailto:celtics-bounces at igtc.com] On Behalf
Of Josh Ozersky
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 12:15 PM
To: The Boston Celtics Mailing List
Subject: Re: Telfair - glowing quotes from another coach (from RealGM)

There are no comments here, or link....

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <HMURDOCH at aol.com>
To: <celtics at igtc.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 5:37 PM
Subject: Telfair - glowing quotes from another coach (from RealGM)

> Since this was from another team's high school coach, it may be more
> believeable than from his own coach  - or not :-)  But it sure makes me 
> more
> comfortable about him not being another Starbury self-centerd type.  And 
> it sounds like
> he's a 'team first' type that's driven to win.  It may be hype, but at 
> least
> it's good hype.
>
> Can't wait till I get to see him next week in Vegas Baby!'
>
> Hank M.
> _______________________________________________
> The Boston Celtics Mailing List
> celtics at igtc.com
> http://www.igtc.com/mailman/listinfo/celtics 

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