Looking back at the 5 years of his young career, it's often easy to forget just how much hype surrounded Sebastian Telfair when he entered the league. From pictures with LeBron to SI covers to movies, the guy was pitched as The Next Big Thing at the point and, at this point in time, it's kind of hard to believe that a 6-foot high school point guard was expected to make a clean jump to the NBA.
During his two years in Minny Telfair showed hard work, court presence and all-around improvement. If you can wipe out any thoughts of the hype with which he entered the league, he's turned out to be a solid player. While he may never develop the type of jump shot or finishing ability that will make him a starting point, he is above average in terms of assist rate and ppr and his ball skills will likely ensure that he will be a solid backup for a long time.
What will you remember about Bassy? What sticks out about his game?
Until later.
UPDATE: Feral puts it very well in the comments:
Bassy's story here was about redemption
The first thing I remember is that opening press conference, with all the faces we’d just gotten for KG. Sebastian was waaaay down at the end of the table. It was clear, we all knew, that he was an afterthought in the deal. Telfair had played his way down the bench to DNP-CDs for both Portland and Boston. His was the one face we knew wouldn’t stick around anyway, and McHale kept almost forgetting Sebastian as he responded to questions. We all saw him as a lost cause whose career was almost done after just those few years.
The kid straightened things out. He’s a respectable backup and no more, unless and until he can either finish or shoot from range. But that’s not the story of Telfair in Minnesota. The facts that as he left he said he loved it here, and that he had genuine admirers even among Wolves fans who recognized the limitations of his game, those are what his story was about.
When he had his back to the wall, he came through.
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Here, here. The guy was written off by many people and he worked his ass off through DNP-CDs with a bad coach to be a starter. That's someone to root for. We'll be following Bassy in LA. Here's hoping he can get the extra 3-5% on his jumper that would allow him to become an above average starting point.