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The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High Stakes Business of High School Ball

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In "The Jump", Ian O'Connor takes the case of Sebastian Telfair (a talented if undersized NYC point guard) to document the wholesale marketing of basketball as merely an outlet for businessmen and agents to exploit the very stars they need. Telfair himself is an intense but likable young athelete who comes across as more than just the sum of his shoe company endorsements and shady high school coach's dealings. And O'Connor masterfully describes the various elements that make basketball what it is today, on the high-school level.

Sebastian (or "Bassy") Telfair is the product of an inner-city enviroment that promises little to many of his peers. Nonetheless, he is blessed with an unnatural ability to command the ball and also interact with his teammates in an unselfish style that seperates him from the ball-hogging "gangstas" that dominate the NBA. In Telfair, O'Connor finds a unique case study for his look at the way money can corrupt even the best atheletes. Telfair is smarter than most, able to avoid the pitfalls of financial entanglements while still a "amateur" status. But he has his own problems off the court.

Telfair's father Otis, a Vietnam vet, was a nonentity during his son's formative years due to a prison conviction. His older brother Sylvester, also in and out of trouble with the law, figured prominently in concerns over Sebastian's ability to land with a team in the 2004 draft. And the neighborhood he grew up in on Coney Island is one of the worst in the country.

Through it all, Telfair has his talent and his backers to keep him from becoming another statistic. As documented in "The Jump", Telfair is the local celebrity, and he is able to navigate through the tension of inner-city life because he has the chance to make it out.

Telfair is surrounded by all sorts of hangers-on who want to ride him to glory: Ziggy Scaginano(sic), the former coach who first pinpointed Sebastian for greatness; Tiny Morton, Bassy's high school coach who falls under investigation for his participation in various tournaments for cash; Sonny Vaccaro, the former Adiddas and ReeBok chief who first courts Telfair then trys to undermine him allegedly; Stephon Marbury, Telfair's famous (and in the Telfair household, infamous) cousin; Rick Pitino, the college coach who banked on Telfair attending school instead; and a host of executives from NBA teams and sneaker companies, all with their eyes on the prize that is the Next Big Thing. And in their eyes, that Next Big Thing is a point guard named Sebastian Telfair.

It would be fair to say that I'm not a huge basketball fan; I enjoy the game, but know little about it. In "The Jump", I think it's fair to say even a non-NBA fan would find something worthy to read. Whether it's Telfair's own struggles to transcend his enviroment without losing his soul, or the various goings-on that conspire to make his jump to the pros all that more difficult, O'Connor never loses sight of the narrative flow that makes this compelling story even more interesting.

Modern sports has become a big-time business, and in "The Jump" Ian O'Connor documents how one player manages to keep his head above the water of endorsements, shady friends and agents, and the pressures of a typical high-school athelete magnified under the national spotlight. Sebastian Telfair may turn out to be the Next Big Thing, or the Next Big Flop. But you won't forget him when you finish the long and winding road to his jump.

... it is an amazing portrayal of the life of a young basketball star in America. The Georgia Tech allegation is just one small part of a story that captures the enormous pressures that are heaped on young athletic talent in America today.

While interesting, the buzz centering around Georgia Tech is such a minor part of the book. George Burdell should order his own copy of The Jump on Amazon and read about the sneaker companies' influence on young athletes, overtures by agents that could impact a players amateur standing, and the amazing story of Telfair himself--an exceptionally talented young player with remarkable poise and charisma who, through hard work, perseverance and amazing talent, overcame the hardship and violence of life in the projects to achieve his dream of playing for the NBA. The real story of the book is captured in this quote from Telfair, "I mean, every player is taking something out there. Everybody. . . . Kids out there are starving. We're starving. We'ver got nothing, nad people are making all this money off of us. Maybe I want to buy my mother something for Christmas. She told me, 'They make all this money. They sell all these pictures of you, and nobody gives anything to our family.' When I was younger, I used to have to borrow sneakers to play ball, but nobody cares. Nobody knows what's going on in our household. They just make their money and move on.'"

For the record, O'Connor writes that Telfair never confirmed that he was referring to GA Tech when he told the story about the booster offering money. Telfair's brother and best friend identified the school as Tech. O'Connor writes, "Of course, someone could have made a $250,000 offer--and an empty one at that--without having any connection to Georgia Tech or its basketball program. Whether the alleged offer to Telfair was real or a hoax, this much was clear: [Telfair] was forever in position to reject business propositions that could have landed him in trouble. The crux of the Tech story is that Telfair was a kid facing enormous pressure and temptations.

Buy this book and read this book. It is one of the best sports books I've ever read.

The news reports give the brief versions of a promising high school student who skipps college to play with the pros. But here are the day to day details of a young man all of a sudden being put into play almost as a commodity.

When amazing amounts of money are involved, amazing things happen. The colleges that would like to have the player hopefully lead them to championships, the agents, the shoe companies seeking yet another name to hang on their wall all begin to work their own special interests.

To a young man from the projects, this has to be bewildering. Whose advice to follow? What is the best solution? What about college? What about the millions of dollars being offered? At 5' 11", is he too small, or is he good enough to make up for the small size?

This is the day by day, decision by decision, event by event story of one young man as he starts his NBA career. It's a story very few will experience first hand, and it's almost unbelievable.

Given the number of pointless, puff-piece biographies about many young athletes, I can understand why some might worry about the substance of this work. However, it takes no more than a few pages to realize that O'Connor is not falling into any such trap. Instead, he has produced one of the best sports to come out in recent years, and one of the best basketball books I've ever read.

I'm sure that even the casual sports fan is aware of Sebastian Telfair, given the magazine covers he graced during his senior year of high school basketball. Knowing a good subject when he sees it, O'Connor decided to follow the Telfair story on a personal level, talking to ST throughout his final year, as well as having discussions with everyone around him - and I mean everyone, including family, friends, teammates, high school and college coaches, ADs, scouts, etc. What we get is an incredibly detailed portrait of what it felt like to be Telfair during an absolutely crazy time in his life.

While athletes are portrayed as vain and greedy, Telfair actually comes off very well in this book. It's not that O'Connor unfairly keeps him above the fray, it's just that Telfair seems like a genuinely good person who happens to be an incredibly gifted and hardworking athlete. The same, however, can't be said of his family. His parents, especially, come across as greedy and self-centered, always looking at how the success of Sebastian (as well as Stephon Marbury and Jamel Thomas before him) might help them out of their tough financial situations. Same goes for plenty of non-family members, who seem in many cases to feel that they're entitled to some kind of kickback for having helped Telfair get to where he is today.

The writing is smooth and descriptive, never becoming bogged down too much with O'Connor's subjective views or wasted words. It's like reading a piece of fiction at times, given the fact that so many invovled come across as characters someone would have created if they didn't already exist. This is a masterpiece of sports writing, a truly great book, and I would recommend it to anyone, even those without a great interest in basketball.

Sebastian Telfair was born into a poor family that lived in a bad neighborhood filled with violence and drugs in Brooklyn, New York. His dad was in and out of jail throughout his life and his mother struggled to work. The only provider he truly had was his older brother, an athlete who failed to make it to the next level, who failed to bring in the wealth like his now famous cousin Stephon Marbury did just a few years before. With Sebastian being one of the last children growing up in the Telfair family he was made into the last hope at a luxurious lifestyle.

Sebastian Telfair had always avoided the dangers of his neighborhood. Instead of being up to no good like some of his peers, he just played basketball all day long. Eventually Telfair became skilled in the sport like no other his age. In fact, as a 10-year-old he was actually ranked the best 4th grader in America Throughout his teen years he continued to persevere in his basketball dreams by winning numerous basketball tournaments and then excelling at Lincoln High School. After his four year run there, he came to an important decision in his life. Should he go to college or straight to the NBA? At first he said he would attend Louisville but the money was just too tempting and Telfair went straight to the NBA as the 13th pick by the Portland Trailblazers. As a rookie Telfair struggled; many of his critics claimed he should have gone to college to become more polished. Now he's getting prepared for his sophomore season hoping to make more of an impact.

The Jump was very descriptively written. Almost everything talked about in the book had some kind of background information included with it so that the reader would never be unaware of something. The story of Sebastian Telfair's life has its share of drama, so naturally his biography will too. From his past coaches trying to follow him to glory, to people trying to pressure him into life changing decisions, just about every page was filled with dramatic situations. Another factor that made me enjoy this book was all of the detailed basketball action that made it seem as though I was actually watching the game. For readers of all kinds, especially sports fans, this book will be a very appealing.

O'Connor did a great job of implementing detail into this biography. Not only did he elaborate extensively on Sebastian Telfair's background, but he did the same for almost every other person Telfair knew or encountered. For example, when writing about Sebastian as a junior high student playing for the Juice All-Stars of Brooklyn he described the coach, Ziggy Scaginano, and his past fully. A reader can really tell that O'Connor has done his research by all the information provided.

Probably the most interesting part of the book was all of the drama. The story of Sebastian Telfair's life written in The Jump seems perfect for a day- time soap opera. His dad and his brother were constantly having run-ins with the law while his mother had to stay home to care for all of the children. Telfair's cousin Stephon Marbury, who lived almost next door in their Coney Island apartment complex, made it to the NBA, taking his family with him, while leaving the Telfair's to remain in the projects. Sebastian's brother, Sylvester, had a great college basketball career, but when draft day came he and the rest of the Telfair's were left severely disappointed as not one team felt they needed him. Then when it comes time for Sebastian to make the most important decision in his life, everyone, including people he's not familiar with, tries to tell him what to do. There are so many different storylines involved that the reader can't possibly put the book down without hesitation.

Another part of the book, which will be mostly appreciated by basketball fanatics, is the amount of description during parts where basketball is played. In fact, O'Connor uses this to draw the reader's attention at the very beginning of the book when writing about Sebastian Telfair playing a championship tournament game at Rucker Park. The reason why these parts of the book succeed so much in catching the reader's attention is because of the elaboration put into them. The author describes the actions of the players and emotions of the crowd so well it makes you feel as if you were actually watching the game instead of reading about it.

The drama and basketball action complemented each other well in providing an entertaining book; while the detail made sure that the reader could fully understand and indulge in it. To a sports fan The Jump is a must-read book because of all the basketball action and related storylines. To the casual reader The Jump is an interesting book to pick up because of its descriptive and detailed writing, along with its addicting drama.

-C. Duncan

well written and oftentimes riveting account of an undersized punk trying to get his...and does. very illuminating spotlight on the sneaker companies, their camps and the exploitation of talented black youths. If you like basketball, this is a must read.

"The Jump" is Ian O'Connor's excellent behind-the-scenes account of Sebastian Telfair's leap from New York City high school ball to the NBA. I recall that when Telfair arrived on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a generously-listed 6-foot guard from Lincoln High in Coney Island, he (as opposed to media phenom LeBron James the year before) seemed to explode into national prominence out of nowhere. O'Connor's book shows you that the author and other savvy talent spotters had tabbed Telfair as a potential NBA lottery pick 12 months or more in advance (indeed, O'Connor shows that people were annointing "Bassy" as NBA-grade as far back as fourth grade).

You've really got to hand it to O'Connor for having the prescience as a journalist to start following the kid, then watch his subject lead his team to third straight NYC title, land on the SI cover, sign a mega-deal with Adidas and become the first small high-school guard to be tabbed in the draft a lottery pick (Portland Trailblazers at #13).

All in all, a great read about the hidden (and rather seamy) side of the many, many hands in the circle trying to position and push an 18-year-old kid into the NBA. Through it all, Telfair comes out looking and sounding like a pretty good kid. From the tone of the book, it sounds like O'Connor would attest to that conclusion. It's amazing that with a veritable maelstrom around him all year, Telfair basically blocked out most of it and played some really fine ball in all-star settings, thereby sealing the lottery deal.

One can't help read this book and wonder how two recent events are going to forever change the the type of scenes O'Connor describes in 'The Jump'": David Stern's decision to increase the minimum draft age to 19; and Adidas' decision to buy Reebok (O'Connor demonstrates that the escalating "sneaker wars" are in large part driven by the fierce three-headed competition between Reebok, Adidas and Nike.).

This is one of my favorite books. It is a great account of the behind the scenes action, politics, and corruption of the game. (Politics and corruption come hand in hand. lol) Portrays a great rags to riches story, and also gives you a great perspective of the ghetto from this inside out. This book inspired a couple of my college research papers. It really makes me feel for the less fortunate ball players that may not make the right career moves because of the financial pressures that come with growing up in the projects. I'm a sports fanatic. Great read.

P.S. No malicious intentions. I did not appreciate the calling of Sebastian a "punk" by one of the reviewers. The boy shied away from hundreds of temptations growing up in Coney Island, and ultimately focused on his school work and his game. As you'll read, others on the drug scene respected Sebastian for what he might have been able to accomplish on and off the court.

The book puts you behind the scenes in Bassy Telfair's last year in high school. Great writing! The author keeps it moving, gets out of the way of the story (unlike Adrian Wojnarowski's St Anthony's book), and makes you feel like you're there. I understood more about this scene from this book that any other. A couple of minor frustrations: 1. He jumps around a little in time without explcitly saying what year he's talking about; and 2. After mentioning that Telfair repeated 4th grade, he doesn't remind us that he's a year older than his grade would suggest even though that's probably important for some stories.

At some points it seems like the author wants us to see the folly of making a big deal out of kids' basketball, but here he is writing a book and making money off of it. All in all, though, O'Connor doesn't preach, he just tells the story and lets us decide what to think about it. One of the best-written basketball books I've read.

Well, actually written like this one, it works well. Ian O'Connor spends a year following Sebastian Telfair, the latest Coney Island point guard superstar who just happens to be the cousin of the last great NY point guard superstar, Stephon Marbury, who just happened to be chronicled in "Last Shot : City Streets, Basketball Dreams by Darcy Frey. Where Marbury attended Georgia Tech for a year and was under significant family pressure to earn money, Telfair signed with Louisville but hoped never to attend if the money was there to go pro. What a change a decade has made from Marbury's matriculation to the pros and Telfair's direct approach through a $15 million Addidas contract.

The stereotype is all there of the family living in the projects with numerous males having had legal problems including the father, to the "add-on brother" who did not make the NBA after a great college career. I'm reminded of a line from a Jimmy Buffett song, "Through the whole thing my new friend stood grinning" which pretty much sums up Telfair's demeanor through this season which will determine how rich he can become and how soon. And it's only his senior year in high school!

O'Connor adds exceptional research and really attempts to understand all those close to the decision: father, mother, brother in jail on suspicion of murder, former & jilted AAU coach, current and shady AAU coach and the agents who want to serve Telfair. O'Connor seems not to have an agenda but just watches and reports as it all unfolds not seeming to take sides or offer moral opinions. And it works!

If you want to learn about the high-stakes world of a basketball prospect teetering between not being drafted and striking it rich, this is the book. There may be many who morally judge high school ballplayers going straight to the pros but I believe if the owners want to pay the money, any young man from a humble background has an obligation to investigate his potential. This book will appeal to anyone who is a college or pro basketball fan and is concerned with players skipping college.