Former NBA player Sebastian Telfair, who hails from Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y., has gone from rags to riches and is now back in the projects where he grew up, as a documentary was recently released showing him living there again.
According to Complex, Telfair, who is currently in prison after being one of 18 former NBA players charged and convicted in an insurance scheme, is the subject of a doc that shows him back in the place he was raised, Mermaid Houses. The film’s title is “Sebastian Telfair: Final Days of Freedom.” Telfar is serving a six-month prison sentence
at the Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix in New Jersey, and is expected to be released in early 2026.Teflair, who is also the cousin of another former NBA player, Stephon Marbury, who also hails from Brooklyn, was one of the great stories of talented basketball players from New York City (Rod Strickland, Kenny Smith, Malik Sealy (R.I.P.), Mark Jackson, to name a few), who made a name for themselves and went to college and then to the NBA to have succesful careers making millions of dollars in the process.
The Coney Island product played for at least eight NBA teams between 2004 and 2014 (including the Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Phoenix Suns). The film does a good job documenting his career. In the documentary, he reveals how certain circumstances led him to return to the projects before serving his prison term at FCI Fort Dix, at the same facility where Diddy is currently serving his sentence.
“The day I picked up a basketball
was the day I was for sure knowing I was going to make it out,” Telfair said in the episode. “After being the No. 1 player in New York City history, I turned that dream into a reality. I played over 10 years in the NBA and made tens of millions of dollars. I had everything I ever dreamed of.”He cops to having several issues in his personal life that have brought him back “home.”
“But after a series of legal issues and personal problems, my life has become something I could never imagine. I’m right back to where it all began. Back in Coney Island, back in the projects, back in the fire.”
You can view the trailer for the documentary below:
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