"Give your boy a pardon," the former star urged the president.
Longtime NBA player Sebastian Telfair, who was scheduled to begin serving a prison sentence Tuesday, asked President Donald Trump for a pardon just hours before his incarceration.
“I know Donald Trump’s got some big things going on, but Donald Trump, I need you to come holla’ … give your boy a pardon so I could stay home with my baby,” Telfair told TMZ on Monday.
Telfair, a New York City high school phenom who played for eight NBA teams between 2004 and 2015 after being drafted in the first round, repeated his plea.
“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 be sent to jail, he said.
Telfair was among many NBA players who were charged with running up fake medical bills on the league’s health care plan to extract millions of ill-gotten dollars.
He was originally sentenced to time served and supervised release for three years but was later given six months in the slammer for violating the terms of his release, the New York Post reported.
According to Sportico, Telfair missed appointments with his probation officer, evaded his community service obligation, and was told by a judge that he did not pursue employment as ordered.
Telfair attributed the problem to a paperwork mixup and said his situation was “super unfair.”
HuffPost reached out to the White House for comment.
In 2019, Telfair was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for gun possession. He was out on appeal days later; his conviction waseventually overturned and a new trial ordered.
Category: General Sports
