I can't stand losing my faith in Telfair

Freeman: Don't get fooled again

Sebastian Telfair fooled me. Seven years later, maybe he still does fool me.

Because even after Telfair apparently lost his job with the Boston Celtics after another gun incident this week, I'm not ready to throw him onto the same pile of hopelessly loser athletes with J.R. Rider, Todd Marinovich and Pacman Jones.

Alleged gun incidents served as bookends to Sebastian Telfair's time in Boston. (Getty Images)

Go back with me to 2000. Maybe he'll fool you, too.

In July 2000, Telfair has just turned 15, but he looks younger. Fresh out of eighth grade, he shows up at the Adidas ABCD Camp in Teaneck, N.J., to play against the country's top high school juniors -- guards like T.J. Ford, Julius Hodge and Anthony Roberson. They look like young men. Telfair looks like a little boy. Until he gets the ball.

Telfair is thrilling to watch -- handles it like a yo-yo, darts to the rim whenever he wants, sees passes nobody else sees -- but that's not where he's going to fool you. The hype said Telfair was special. And so he is. No surprise there.

The surprise comes off the court.

Telfair is younger than everyone here, but off the court he seems older. Before each day's first game, while the other campers are goofing off with circus dunks and NBA 3-pointers, Telfair is off to the side. He brought a personal trainer with him, and the trainer is putting him through agility drills.

Again, picture this. Everyone else, including future NBA players like Eddy Curry and Kwame Brown, is on the court acting like a teenager. Telfair is off the court acting like a pro. He has a rubber band around his ankles and he's sliding back and forth. He's working with a medicine ball. He's doing cone drills.

This kid's going to make it.

Between their games, campers sit in the bleachers and people-watch -- checking out the competing campers who are now on the court, and checking out the Division-I basketball coaches watching from the other side of the gym. The players are trying so hard to look cool. Not Telfair. He's behind the bleachers, down a hallway, doing sit-ups and push-ups.

This kid's going to make it. And he's going to make it big.

After games, players meet the media. These kids are 17 or 18. This is their first exposure, and it shows. They say goofy stuff. They look not at the reporter but at the reporter's notepad, amazed that my words are being copied onto paper. Verbally they get led wherever reporters want them to go, announcing their list of interested schools and talking about the positives of this school or that school. They are sheep.