By VICTOR FLORES
[email protected]
Everything crashed for Ethan Telfair in December 2012.
Ethan, now the starting point guard for the Idaho State University men’s basketball team, received a call from his mother, Erica Telfair, in late November 2012. His father, Sylvester “Otis” Telfair, had died at the age of 64.
After the funeral in New York (Ethan’s from Coney Island), Ethan returned to Quest Prep in Las Vegas. He quickly discovered that his classes weren’t NCAA accredited, which meant he wouldn’t become eligible to play in the NCAA for another year. Several Division I schools were recruiting him at the time.
“I was on the other side of the country in Nevada by myself,” Ethan told the Post Register. “Them telling me that the school wasn’t accredited and my dad dying, it was too much. I just wanted to get away.”
Ethan spent the next two years traversing the southern United States, trying to find a launch pad back to Division I college basketball. He finally found it this season for ISU, and he’s been one of the best players in the Big Sky Conference.
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
“I don’t even know how I got here,” Ethan said.
Black Marks
Before attending Quest for his senior year of high school, Ethan went to Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. His brother, Sebastian Telfair, and cousin, Stephon Marbury, both attended Lincoln. Both played in the NBA.
High school was where Ethan first encountered problems. In 2011, Ethan was charged with felony criminal possession of three loaded guns and attempting to bribe a police officer, according to the New York Daily News. The gun charges were later dropped.
Ethan said that he was merely playing basketball when police officers arrested him and 11 other people.
The charges have followed him around. For instance, Oklahoma State was tentative about offering him a scholarship because of the incident, he said.
“It left a bad stigma on me for a while,” Ethan said. “I used to be so angry about that, but I have to let it go.”
When it came to recruiting, the criminal charges were compounded by Ethan’s height (ISU generously lists him at 6-foot) and his non-accredited classes at Quest. The latter left him scrambling to find a new school.
Arriving and thriving at ISU
In 2013, Ethan transferred from Quest to United Prep in Oklahoma City. But his stay was short. Ethan’s half-brother, Jamel Thomas (another former NBA player), recommended he look at junior colleges, where he could play and complete his class credits.
Thomas asked Steve DeMeo, his former coach at Providence and current Northwest Florida State College coach, to take a look at Ethan. Sure enough, DeMeo brought Ethan aboard.
“I was excited to have him on the team,” DeMeo said. “He’s one of the strongest competitors I’ve ever coached.”
Ethan lasted one season. DeMeo said Ethan, who came off the bench for the Raiders, wanted more playing time.
Ethan got the starting role he craved last season at Redlands Community College in Oklahoma, but he again went searching for a new school after the season. He said Utah State, Fresno State and Manhattan College, among others, looked at him. ISU coach Bill Evans knew some of Ethan’s AAU and junior college coaches, he said, so he reached out to the now-junior. Ethan came to Pocatello on a visit shortly thereafter.
“Then I put him in a headlock and said, ‘Are you going to sign?’ ” Evans joked. “And he did.”
ISU is currently 11-11. The last time the Bengals had a winning record was 2005. Ethan has been the key to their resurgence, thanks to his 18.3 points per game (fourth in the Big Sky), 5.6 assists per game (first) and 2.3 steals per game (first).
Did he expect the instant success?
“If I say what I want to say, they’re going to say, ‘Are you cocky? Are you arrogant?’ ” Ethan said, referring to no one in particular. “I didn’t come here to lose. I didn’t come here for nothing less than success.”
Doing right by Sylvester
Ethan is driven to make up for his past criminal and academic issues. He wants to prove he’s more than Sebastian’s little brother. But more than anything else, he’s playing for his late father.
In a decade-plus leading up to Ethan’s birth, Sylvester — a Vietnam War veteran — ran into trouble with the law, including a manslaughter conviction in 1988 that landed him eight years in prison, according to Ian O’Connor’s 2007 book, “The Jump.” But he was around to watch Ethan, his youngest of 10 children, grow up.
“My dad was tough,” Ethan said.
Ethan has a scar near his right eye from when he ran into a radiator as a child. He’s faced criminal charges. He’s attended six schools in five years.
None of those things can compare to losing his father.
“I made a promise to my dad at the funeral that I was going to do right,” Ethan said. “Graduate from high school and college, stay out of trouble and try to make the most of my life.”
