BAMAPHIN 22
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Sebastian Telfair, the 13th pick in the 2004 draft, lasted just one season in Boston.
The Boston Celtics are severing ties with guard Sebastian Telfair just days after he was arrested in New York with a loaded gun in his car.
Team managing partner Wyc Grousbeck said Telfair, who was the 13th pick in the draft in 2004 and is coming off a disappointing first season with the Celtics, would not be back with the team.
"The facts and circumstances of his case have not been determined, but he does not have a Celtics locker and we do not anticipate that he will," Grousbeck said in an e-mail. He did not say how the team would handle the remaining season on Telfair's contract.
Telfair's attorney, Ed Hayes, told The Associated Press the Celtics are rushing to judgment.
"It always bothers me when you punish a guy so severely before there's been a finding of fact. I think that's wrong whether it happens in Durham (N.C) or in Boston," Hayes said, referring to the Duke lacrosse rape case.
Hayes said Telfair is a "nice, nice guy" who has no drug problems, has never hurt anybody and supports 17 relatives on his NBA salary since being drafted out of high school.
"He's come so far and done so well, I don't think you have to throw him overboard," Hayes said.
Telfair, 21, of Brooklyn, was arrested early Friday after police in Yonkers, N.Y., stopped him for speeding and found a loaded handgun under a seat in his SUV.
Telfair did not have a valid license, and police said he and his passenger told them they knew nothing of the gun.
Telfair pleaded not guilty to a charge of felony second-degree possession of a weapon, and was released Friday on $7,500 bail.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/nba/04/24/telfair.celtics.ap/index.html
