Sebastian Telfair had Fabolus shot!

WhiteCap · #1 10-19-2006, 08:48 AM

Shark23 · #2 10-19-2006, 09:23 AM

The Judge · #3 10-19-2006, 09:29 AM

Telfair robbed at NYC club -- Point guard pulled from game to view police lineups
A guarded Sebastian Telfair admitted last night that he spent the second half of the Celtics’ loss in New York Tuesday night at a police station, looking at lineups in an attempt to identify the man who stole his gold chain the previous night outside a Manhattan club owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The theft occurred just hours before rapper Fabolous was shot in the right thigh outside the club.

Telfair, a Brooklyn native, said he was inside Justin’s Bar and Grill with his fiancee, Samantha Rodriguez, at approximately 10 p.m. when he decided to walk outside. Telfair told police that the chain, reportedly valued at $50,000, was ripped from his neck by an unknown man. The alleged thief, part of a group, then ran off.

Telfair returned to the restaurant to report the theft, though he reportedly turned down an offer by an attendant to call police.

A New York Police Department source told the Herald yesterday that Telfair became “uncooperative” after telling cops he had been robbed.

I cooperated with police, and did what I had to do,” Telfair said repeatedly last night, after a briefing from Celtics media relations officials while stretching on the floor prior to the C’s 94-90 preseason win over the Nets at TD Banknorth Garden.

“I still have my life, and I’m still playing basketball, and that’s all I can ask for,” added Telfair. “I was the victim of a bad situation.”

Fabolous was struck in what police described as a fusillade of at least 10 shots at 12:35 a.m. in a parking garage near the club.

Fabolous, hurried off in a white Dodge Magnum by members of his entourage, was later stopped and charged with the possession of two loaded handguns, a 9-mm pistol and a .40-caliber pistol.

“(Telfair) is definitely the victim of a robbery, and we are talking to him about the ensuing shooting,” the NYPD source said. “We are questioning him about what he knows.”

Police would not confirm an ESPN.com report that members of Fabolous’ entourage were included in the lineups.

Telfair said last night that he only knows of Fabolous from the rapper’s fame, saying, “He’s a celebrity. Everyone knows him. That was just another unfortunate incident.”

According to Telfair, the evening’s events were nothing more than two convergent circumstances, a theft and a shooting at the same club on the same night.

The rapper’s attorney, Alberto Ebanks, suggested Telfair and Fabolous were victims of assailants targeting the club’s high-profile clientele.

Telfair kept the incident to himself for almost an entire day. The Celtics were informed of the news during the first half of their game against the Knicks, when director of basketball operations Danny Ainge was called by a member of NBA security, who had been contacted by NYPD officials. The police asked if Telfair could look at multiple lineups in an attempt to identify a suspect.

Telfair was in the midst of his best game of the exhibition season as Ainge and team security director Phillip Lynch discussed the next step.

Lynch drove Telfair to the police station at halftime and coach Doc Rivers, claiming he didn’t want to distract the team, told players and the media that Telfair was feeling “ill.”

The Celtics coach admitted last night that he “lied” about Telfair’s second-half absence.

Meanwhile, team officials were upset with the 21-year-old Telfair’s reluctance to tell them about the incident sooner.

“That’s a judgment coming from a young player,” said Rivers. “He has to understand that we can help you. We’re not going to hurt you. At the end of the day, authorities are going to do what they’re going to do. I’m sure he thought that it was going to be taken care of by his attorneys, and left it at that.”

Last season, while with Portland, Telfair was fined after a loaded gun registered to an acquaintance was found on the team’s charter at Hanscom Field.

“He’s trying so hard to be a clean kid, with no problems,” Rivers said. “He said, ‘I didn’t do anything, and now I’m in the middle of this.’ ”

Telfair had few regrets about taking Rodriguez out for dinner in what turned out to be such a hot spot.

“It was 10, a pretty normal time to go out,” he said. “But there’s nothing positive I can take out of this situation.”

Said Ainge: “I’m not disappointed yet, based on the facts I have now. . . . If I had heard that Sebastian was out at 2 in the morning and something like this happened, I’d be very disappointed.”