FBI Investigates NBA Ref. Tim Donaghy

[Guest DetroitIan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2943095

All I know is. I am totally outraged over this. All these players out there busting their asses trying to win. Playing their hearts out every game. And this scumbag piece of s*** comes in and makes bogus calls on purpose against players just to win money. This makes me sick to my stomach. What's the point of sport with bums like this out there? I sure hope there arent others like him out there in any of our sports. Cause Im sure the next time there is a horrible call against a team, people are gonna be wondering in the back of their heads. And hell, I dont blame em'. This is rediculous.

[betterREDthandead 58]

This is quite possibly the worst thing that could happen to the NBA - or any league. If it's confined to one ref, it's probably not the doomsday scenario that people are making it out to be....one ref on a crew of three can't significantly affect the outcome of a season. But when you open the door like this, the questions are going to descend on every single ref they employ. Frankly, the league is a victim here - there will likely be calls for the NBA to "clean up its act" but how could they have known?

I do think it will be a fascinating story to watch and see how it unfolds. One thing I think is extremely interesting is watching games or reading about games where there's a hidden backstory that doesn't show on the surface. Fixed games are the very epitome of that.

One game that was mentioned in the article was a Heat-Knicks game in February. Has all the trappings of a fixed game. The Knicks won and shot 39 free throws to the Heat's 8. The refs called the Heat for a full five technical fouls - three for defensive three-seconds and one each on Pat Riley and an assistant. Miami was hit with 25 fouls, New York, 14. Yet no Miami player fouled out - spread out the foul love so it doesn't look like you're trying to foul out Shaq. High-profile rivalry. Two of the country's most glamorous cities. The fix was on.

Like I said - gonna be a fun story. Donaghy's a scumbag - no doubt about that. He cheated everyone. But I'm gonna grab some popcorn and watch what unfolds. I think there will be a lot of sanctimonious talk, which is unfortunate, because what happens now is that every fan (especially those whose teams got in the way of the Heat during their championship run) now has a chance to complain and is now allowed to believe that their team, be it the Pistons, Mavs, or whoever else, was cheated.

[mannysBETTER3434 1]

This isn't a shock to me at all. Suprised it didn't happen sooner. To this day I am convinced the Eastern Conference Finals were rigged 2 years ago. Wade got away with murder during that series, and everyone knew Stern wanted Wade/Shaq in the finals, and not the "boring" Pistons.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Yeah, if people think the NHL has the worst officiating of the major sports, they need to watch a few more NBA games.

It's the primary reason I don't really watch anymore. It's a joke.

Here's another good article on it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;lid=tab1pos1

As he points out, most fans reactions wasn't "how did this happen?" but was "which ref was it?" Because it really wasn't a surprise. It merely confirmed what a lot of people already thought.

Edited July 22, 2007 by haroldsnepsts

[Airborn 0]

Yeah, if people think the NHL has the worst officiating of the major sports, they need to watch a few more NBA games.

It's the primary reason I don't really watch anymore. It's a joke.

Here's another good article on it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;lid=tab1pos1

As he points out, most fans reactions wasn't "how did this happen?" but was "which ref was it?" Because it really wasn't a surprise. It merely confirmed what a lot of people already thought.

Funny, I read this article last night, and think Simmons hit it right on the head. When the story broke about a corrupt NBA official, it registered no surprise to me, and I immediately began a making a list of a dozen or so possible officials it could be.

Anyone who watched any of the 2006 NBA finals knows exactly what Simmons is refering to in his article. That was the most sickening display of one-sided officiating I've ever seen.

[redwingfan19 293]

yeah im pissed, I am a Raptors fan and one game we played the Hawks and there was a "scoreboard malfunction" and they didn't count 2 pts the Raps got and the Hawks won the game by like a point or 2. Oh yeah and guess who the ref was HMMMMM.............

[Airborn 0]

yeah im pissed, I am a Raptors fan and one game we played the Hawks and there was a "scoreboard malfunction" and they didn't count 2 pts the Raps got and the Hawks won the game by like a point or 2. Oh yeah and guess who the ref was HMMMMM.............

Interesting. The more I think about this, the more I can see this story becoming the largest sports scandal we've ever seen. If the Mob has their hooks into one ref, there could be more.

Take into account, the general "crappiness" of NBA officiating (make NHL refs look like gods) and can you ever trust the NBA again? As Simmons stated, every time a bad or strange call happens, in the back of your mind you'll be wondering if it's something more than incompetence. Also, this is not like other sports. Officiating CAN decide the outcome of games and many times does.

If this is bigger than one guy, it will set the NBA back for decades.

[redwingfan19 293]

some more intersting tidbits of the dirty ref and the Raptors.

Apparently two games involving Tim Donaghy refeering the raptors are raising questionmarks, both dating to 2007.

1 a regular season game vs the sixers, and one is game 6 vs the nets,

"For example, the 76ers were favored to beat the Raptors by one point at home on Jan. 15, 2007, but heavy betting on Toronto resulted in the closing line favoring the Raptors by 1. Toronto won in a blowout, 104-86, and 21 fouls were called on each team."

"Another anomaly: In Game 6 of the 2007 first-round series between the Nets and Raptors, the line opened at 3 points favoring the Nets at home and closed at 5. That result would've been under scrutiny, but only by any fixers who might've been involved. The Nets failed to cover in a 98-97 series-clinching victory and had only a slight free-throw advantage (29-25). "If [Donaghy] was involved there, he's in trouble," the Nevada source said. "And not with the NBA."

and i guess he's also getting death threats from the mob:

From the New York Post:

Three Manatee County Sheriff's squad cars screeched up to the Bradenton, Fla., home of terrified former NBA official Tim Donaghy to investigate menacing telephone calls against him.

"They think he will be killed if he goes to prison, or even if he doesn't, just because he's probably talking, cooperating, and that's ratting on the mob," the pal said. "I don't think [the Mafia] would take that very well.

The disgraced ref is said to be set to spill all - threatening to bring down anyone and everyone with him, sources said. He'll be naming names of other refs, coaches, players and game "validators," who sit unobtrusively in the stands to review calls on the court, the source said.

"[Relatives] are very concerned for his safety," the friend added. "I think they knew something serious was going on, but not like this, not this big, whole life-or-death issue with the Mafia. I mean, it's the Gambinos."

Several friends in Cape May, N.J., where his parents summer, said Donaghy's co-workers grew suspicious of his behavior about three years ago, when he would offer to trade free tickets to certain games with some refs in exchange for others - and then suddenly renege.

this guy is in a ton of trouble

[HomeNugget 2]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2943095

All I know is. I am totally outraged over this. All these players out there busting their asses trying to win. Playing their hearts out every game. And this scumbag piece of s*** comes in and makes bogus calls on purpose against players just to win money. This makes me sick to my stomach. What's the point of sport with bums like this out there? I sure hope there arent others like him out there in any of our sports. Cause Im sure the next time there is a horrible call against a team, people are gonna be wondering in the back of their heads. And hell, I dont blame em'. This is rediculous.

don't act so surprised. everyone knows this stuff goes on in the nba. the only reason this is news is because the mob was calling the shots this time instead of the league.

[mannysBETTER3434 1]

I watched the Stern conference today on ESPNews, and had to laugh. One reporter asked Stern "You keep saying this is a isolated case, how do you know other refs are clean?".. Stern sat there for over 10 seconds with no answer, and then finally made up a bunch of bull crap that didn't even answer the question. He was lying up a storm!

[masterscorpio77 0]

yeah i saw that too, it didn't look to me that stern knew how to answer the question, wow, seems like he is gonna be quite busy for the next few months eh?

[Guest jaytan]

If the league were fixing games (not the mob or rogue refs for cash), we wouldn't see San Antonio in the finals all the time.

Obviously, the NBA has ridiculously varied judgement on foul-calling from one ref to the next. I don't even really like basketball or follow it too closely, but when I do watch a game, I can't tell how they justify calling half of the fouls they do. There's no simple definition of a rules violation, from what I can tell.

So yeah, if I were an underpaid NBA ref having to deal with all those jackass players, I'd fix a few games and gamble on point spreads. How hard can it be? Just mess up one or two calls in the end of the game when all anybody's doing is taking foul shots anyway.