NBA Ref accused of betting on games he officiated

[PrinceFielder28]

www.sportsline.com/nba/story/10263114

[igor67]

And yet MLB will continue to be the second most tainted sport after cycling. I think most of the anti_bud rhetoric is sour grapes and personal dislike, but he has doen a very bad job of pointing out how much better and stricter the MLB testing regime is than any other non-Olympic sport.

[lukevan]

Ugh, our worst fears realized. NBA officiating is already bad enough without a guy making the wrong calls on purpose. This makes you wonder how many officials (in all sports) have done this without getting caught.

[Chio151]

The tip of the iceberg in the NBA.

 

It's almost pre-destined in a sport that has such a subjective bias for fouls -- perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the sport.

 

The NBA has become something of a Kabuki theatre in recent years. Without a large overhaul it could become even less relevant.

[JohnBriggs12]

Great. I've been saying the NBA was fixed for years only half joking.

[brewtank34]

If this report is true, the NBA will definitely take a big blow, but I don't see this being the end of all ends for the sport. The biggest thing they need to worry about is TV ratings. You can start beating that by decreasing the regular season or at least the playoffs...the playoffs are just horrible.

 

This ref is going to go down in history as one of the biggest jokes in sports...dumb donkey. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/pimp.gif

[Mr QL]

Not surprising at all. Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction for the NBA in legitimizing their game. Now what they have to do is bring back hand checking, get rid of zone, and allow some contact. Magloire is right, this league has gotten soft.

[molitor fan]

The referee in question is apparently 12 year veteran ref Tim Donaghy....he was often teamed with Joe Derosa, and reffed the Bucks 2nd to last game of the season.

[JimH5]

After considering this story for a couple of days, I think this could be far more damaging to the league than any of the behavior that some NFLers are accused of.

 

This undermines the whole of the league. You need to have absolute certainty that the games you are watching are being played and officiated on the level--otherwise you're basically watching a farce.

 

To think that organized crime figures are affecting outcomes of games is startling--and all they have to do is get to one guy, as they apparently have done with this schmo.

 

We'll see how this one turns out. Once we hear some details, it may enlighten some of Pete Rose's HOF supporters of the harm that gambling can cause.

[brewcrewreview]

All I can think of is how many bets did I win or lose because of this guy? Did his fixing put me ahead or behind?

[pepsimax23]

this puts another cloud over the spurs 2007 championship. whether he contributed to point-shaving or not, dude was a ref for game 3 of the spurs suns series, the one where amare stoudemire questionably found himself in early foul trouble & san antonio took it 108-101.

[brewcrewreview]

Anyway way of knowing if he called any of those fouls???

[Point Beer Is Best]

A report I heard on ESPN radio claims he is prepared to "name names," bringing in other referees as well as NBA players into this scandal.

[pepsimax23]

sweet! i'm glad to know that having season tickets to this garbage - how thats money well spent. (no surprise that i also have season tix to the arizona cardinals)

 

i have no idea if donughy blew the whistle on amare, but i'll bet my bottom dollar it was that dude in that game who blew the late whistle 3 seconds after the play when everyone was already on the other side of the court - to give manu ginobli free throws.

 

bill simmons column on this debacle is a good read.

[molitor fan]

I just watched a ESPN interview with Chris Sheridan - and apparently there is no question that games were fixed....

 

A study completed after the fact has shown that betting lines of games Donaghy worked moved suspiciously on a consistant basis, and Sheridan is very surprised that Donaghy was not found out earlier, as NBA security is supposed to be monitoring what apparently should have been obvious

[Point Beer Is Best]

I also heard yesterday on the radio that the NBA knew about his gambling problems last offseason and were investigating him. For whatever reason, they continued to allow him to referee games knowing he had accumulated substantial gambling debts.

[Mike Felder]

It was Donaghy who blew the super super late whistle...there's a video montage of the bad calls in that playoff game on YouTube. Also a post/link to it at Deadspin.

[tommyboy42609]

here's a youtube video connecting the ref to the game 3 spurs/suns finals game.

 

[Fatter than Joey]

We'll see how this one turns out. Once we hear some details, it may enlighten some of Pete Rose's HOF supporters of the harm that gambling can cause.

 

Exactly -- thanks for making this point. Gambling on sports is a losing proposition. Gamblers are going to lose, and the temptation to hedge your bets is going to be so large, and potentially damaging to the sport. If you think steroids is going to hurt MLB, wait until people start finding out the NBA was fixed.

 

What bothers me, is that after 2 years some one in the NBA had to be clued it to what this ref. was doing -- his partners, the league, or players -- it seems to me there has to be more people involved, or at the very least, aware that this was happening.

[ccbrew]

So I suppose this will quiet any little remaining talk there was post all-star game about having a Vegas-based NBA team..

[molitor fan]

Stern just did a news conference and answered a bundle of questions.

 

The most interesting part for me was that Donaghy made $260,000 last year as a ref. That is a bunch more than I had assumed.

 

The other shocker was that Donaghy lost his huge sums of money betting on the dog fights at Michael Vick's house.

 

 

 

 

(kidding)

[Mr QL]

I watched that press conference, what a snake. Step down.

[pitchleague]

eh, now this confirms that NBA basketball is just entertainment--like wrestling. I mean, it MUST be if it's fixed. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[brewerjamie15]

I blame the terrible season the Bucks had on gambling officials. That's it. Done deal.