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<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Sebastian Telfair finally made it to Louisville yesterday. He stars in "Through the Fire," which is playing at Showcase Stonybrook.
Talk about perfect casting. Telfair plays Sebastian Telfair, a high school basketball prodigy from New York City who has no intention of attending the University of Louisville but acts as if he does because filmmaker Jonathan Hock is building a documentary about Telfair's decision to attend college or turn pro.
Hmmm. The only way to create two seconds of drama is to have Telfair pretend he is interested in playing for Rick Pitino.
Two years ago many people were fooled. There is cinematic evidence of the Cardinal coaches and fan base embracing the Tel-fairy tale. Louisville Gardens was packed for a game Telfair and his Lincoln High teammates played against Pleasure Ridge Park. Telfair was cheered as if he were Darrell Griffith.
There has been real-life evidence of the Telfair folly all season as the Cardinals have staggered though Big East play with a gap at point guard that another Class of 2004 recruit could have filled.
A predictable ending
<font color=""Red"">You won't be fooled if you watch this 103-minute documentary, which you can see for nothing if you wait until ESPN airs it March 12.</font>
Save your money. You know the ending. This documentary will only make you more cynical about the never-ending process of identifying The Next Great Thing and blowing him up into the Next Michael, Next Kobe, Next LeBron.
In a season and a half in the National Basketball Association, Telfair hasn't shown anybody he can be as transcendent as those guys.
This season he's averaging 8.8 points per game for Portland, an increase of two points from 2005. But he carries the same hole in his jumper that made him bristle when folks questioned him in high school. His shooting percentage is down from 39.3 to 35.7.
But this isn't about just basketball. With Sebastian Telfair it never has been.
It's about image, celebrity and moving product. It's about The Con.
And Telfair has always been better at The Con than he has been with the 18-footer.
Pay attention. Early in the film he jokes about how his younger brother, Ethan, will be the first eighth-grader to jump directly to the NBA -- for $100 million. If you follow the money, you quickly realize the brother who ensured that Telfair would never play with Taquan Dean was Telfair's older half brother, Jamel Thomas.
Shattered dream
Thomas played at Providence College and led the Big East in scoring in 1999. He's the one whose heart was broken when he wasn't selected in the NBA draft because he had a forward's game trapped in a guard's body.
That wasn't going to happen to Telfair. Not with Jay-Z, Spike Lee and Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter attending his games. Not with adidas primed to distribute T-shirts at the news conference where Telfair announced his "decision" to attend U of L.
Not when academics are missing from the entire documentary. Not with Thomas comparing his little brother to Tiger Woods and telling him to avoid tattoos because they will hurt his image.
His image will take a bump with this documentary. Watch Telfair drive a sports car as he goes to pick up some must-have cuff links and debates the NBA or Louisville.
See Telfair complain when a live interview with ESPN that is supposed to be about the McDonald's All-Star game morphs into questions that expose the shakiness of his commitment to U of L.
"Through The Fire" convinced me that Sebastian Telfair did the right thing by going directly to the NBA. Not that there was ever any doubt about i
</div>
link: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.d...463/1002/SPORTS
Talk about perfect casting. Telfair plays Sebastian Telfair, a high school basketball prodigy from New York City who has no intention of attending the University of Louisville but acts as if he does because filmmaker Jonathan Hock is building a documentary about Telfair's decision to attend college or turn pro.
Hmmm. The only way to create two seconds of drama is to have Telfair pretend he is interested in playing for Rick Pitino.
Two years ago many people were fooled. There is cinematic evidence of the Cardinal coaches and fan base embracing the Tel-fairy tale. Louisville Gardens was packed for a game Telfair and his Lincoln High teammates played against Pleasure Ridge Park. Telfair was cheered as if he were Darrell Griffith.
There has been real-life evidence of the Telfair folly all season as the Cardinals have staggered though Big East play with a gap at point guard that another Class of 2004 recruit could have filled.
A predictable ending
<font color=""Red"">You won't be fooled if you watch this 103-minute documentary, which you can see for nothing if you wait until ESPN airs it March 12.</font>
Save your money. You know the ending. This documentary will only make you more cynical about the never-ending process of identifying The Next Great Thing and blowing him up into the Next Michael, Next Kobe, Next LeBron.
In a season and a half in the National Basketball Association, Telfair hasn't shown anybody he can be as transcendent as those guys.
This season he's averaging 8.8 points per game for Portland, an increase of two points from 2005. But he carries the same hole in his jumper that made him bristle when folks questioned him in high school. His shooting percentage is down from 39.3 to 35.7.
But this isn't about just basketball. With Sebastian Telfair it never has been.
It's about image, celebrity and moving product. It's about The Con.
And Telfair has always been better at The Con than he has been with the 18-footer.
Pay attention. Early in the film he jokes about how his younger brother, Ethan, will be the first eighth-grader to jump directly to the NBA -- for $100 million. If you follow the money, you quickly realize the brother who ensured that Telfair would never play with Taquan Dean was Telfair's older half brother, Jamel Thomas.
Shattered dream
Thomas played at Providence College and led the Big East in scoring in 1999. He's the one whose heart was broken when he wasn't selected in the NBA draft because he had a forward's game trapped in a guard's body.
That wasn't going to happen to Telfair. Not with Jay-Z, Spike Lee and Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter attending his games. Not with adidas primed to distribute T-shirts at the news conference where Telfair announced his "decision" to attend U of L.
Not when academics are missing from the entire documentary. Not with Thomas comparing his little brother to Tiger Woods and telling him to avoid tattoos because they will hurt his image.
His image will take a bump with this documentary. Watch Telfair drive a sports car as he goes to pick up some must-have cuff links and debates the NBA or Louisville.
See Telfair complain when a live interview with ESPN that is supposed to be about the McDonald's All-Star game morphs into questions that expose the shakiness of his commitment to U of L.
"Through The Fire" convinced me that Sebastian Telfair did the right thing by going directly to the NBA. Not that there was ever any doubt about i
</div>
link: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.d...463/1002/SPORTS
