Former NBA player Sebastian Telfair has reflected on what it was like to remove the ankle monitor he had to wear for five years in connection with a weapons and marijuana-related conviction in 2019.
Telfair sat down for an interview with VladTV recently, and he spoke on the moment he had his ankle monitor removed. In 2019, Telfair was released from prison following an agreement with the courts after he was convicted of possessing an illegal firearm in a 2017 incident where he was caught with a load of weapons and ammunition during a traffic stop.
Telfair was ordered to surrender his passports, forced to stay in New York City with a mandatory curfew, and required to wear an ankle monitor. The monitor was removed earlier this month, and Telfair couldn't have been happier. He explained that he now has a black ring around his ankle because of it while admitting he was in shock, knowing he was finally going to be a free man.
"I'm so happy to have this ankle monitor off me," Telfair said. "I went into shock, and I didn't even know I was in shock, like, I wasn't even speaking, like I was just kind of like, 'Oh shit.' And then, when I woke up the next day, I just felt like I slept for 100 hours. I just felt like a new, new, new person. I kept envisioning like, 'Well, what am I going to feel like when I get this damn ankle monitor off me?' And now I know what it feels like."
Telfair also explained that Rick Ross told him he once had to wear an ankle monitor for three years, which helped him understand the scope of his situation and how much time he would be spending wearing the monitor.
"Bro, five years! I know Ross had his on for three years, and at first, I was like, 'Man, after a year and a half, it's too long.' And then I seen Ross and he was like, this shit, he had him for three years, so I'm like, alright, now I had mine for five years. I'm glad that shit is over," he said.
Telfair didn't get any help from his ex-wife and ex-mistress who ended up testifying against him in his 2019 trial. Elsewhere in the conversation with VladTV, Telfair revealed he didn't know how prosecutors got his wife to testify.
"I don't know how the DA got my ex-wife to cooperate with them," said Telfair. "From the time I got arrested until last Friday. She cooperated with the police."
When asked why those two testified against him, Telfair added, "Between my divorce and the money and my situation, they wanted to put me in jail and [take] the money. They lied to her, and I'm sure she's somebody that's looking stupid right now. They lied to her."
