After tariff issues and other important decisions on his desk, Donald Trump receives a plea from former NBA star Sebastian Telfair. The former No. 13 pick was previously sentenced along with several former NBA players for defrauding the league. It was a huge scandal back in 2021, as players defrauded the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan of approximately $358,000 in fake medical and dental claims. But Telfair’s recent sentence has a twist, which he believes is unjust.

Helping him tell his story to the world was none other than DJ Vlad. He set the narrative and asked the 10-season veteran what went wrong. “Now, originally you had a plea deal with prosecutors that you serve 15 to 21 months, but you were actually sentenced to time served at three years of supervised release in order to pay restitution, but then at one point they say things went wrong.” The  40-year-old added that dealing with the State and Federal laws confused him, and thus the current situation.

“I was on probation after being sentenced, basically. So just basically struggling on probation, just kind of, you know, staying within the rules what they need me to do. I was coming off my state case. I’m coming off my state case, and then I got on federal probation, and what I didn’t understand was that I was going to have to stay in New York.” Sebastian Telfair claims there was no direct communication made to him to stay put in NYC. This not only confused him, but his family too.

“So that threw me for a loop. I wasn’t able to go from the ankle monitor to doing probation with the feds, and you know, just basically doing everything they asked me to do.” That’s why the point guard wants President Trump to intervene. Telfair even claimed that he was also forced to work at McDonald’s during the entire ordeal.

“I was basically struggling not you know but the news of you got to stay in New York also like that s— just kind of blew me and my family because we like we made so many plans for me to leave New York soon the case was over so I don’t know probation was kind of was kind of whack and you know it was just really kind of trying to turn me into I don’t know they want me go work at McDonald’s that’s the real truth.”

Sebastian Telfair pleads and shares what he can do instead

He last played in the NBA in 2014 when he appeared in 16 games with the Oklahoma City Thunder. After the Portland Trail Blazers took him in the first round back in 2004. He completed 10 seasons in the league and was a journeyman, which involved stops with the T-Wolves, Clippers, Cavs, Suns, and the Raptors. He was once regarded as one of the most exciting high school phenoms to ever come out of the New York area. But now, the headlines only feature him going behind bars.

“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 being sending anybody to jail,” Telfair argued in comments to a reporter from TMZ. Even while talking to TMZ, he claimed that his recent issue is due to a paperwork problem. Plus, he feels the resulting sentence would be “super unfair.”

Now, whether President Trump will look at the case and pardon him remains to be seen, but Telfair is definitely trying. For now, it’s all claims until there is a press release from the officials. Until any further development, Telfair will remain behind bars.