Tim Donaghy has just been sentenced to 15 months in jail a year after resigning from the NBA. He pled guilty in August '07 to taking thousands of dollars in payoffs from a professional gambler for inside betting tips such as players' health and travel information. He took the cash and bet on games himself.ON GAMES HE REFEREED.
The refereeing in the NBA has been awful for a long time. So does it make sense that one, if not more refs have actually been fixing games? Sure it does. It kinda seems like it would be an easy thing to do too. Sports gambling expert R.J. Bell found 10 straight games in 2007 in which Donaghy worked the game that the point spread moved 1.5 points or more before the tip — an indication that big money had been wagered on the game. The big money won every time. Just call a couple of meaningless fouls at the end of a game so a player gets to the line. Or even call them earlier to get the team into the bonus.
The sad thing is, the only reason why Donaghy got caught is because of an organized crime probe that was conducted in New York by the FBI. Now I'm not sure what kind of review that David Stern and top NBA officials conduct after every season, but clearly it's not a very thorough one. The thing is, Donaghy did this in 10 straight games last year. In retrospect, that sort of thing (should) stand out. But what if current refs are only doing it a few times each year? Donaghy was thousands of dollars in debt, had a gambling problem, and needed to make money fast. Like as fast as Mike McD and Worm if you feel me. He had certain...folks waiting for him. But for other refs in less dire straits looking to make some extra cash now and again?
Not according to David Stern. Stern claims that Donaghy is the only one to ever do such a thing. But Mr. Donaghy begs to differ. Among other claims, Donaghy said that the infamous Game 6 between Sacramento and the Lakers in 2002 was indeed affected by the referees. Now anything he says has to be taken with a grain of salt bigger than Brooke Hogan's adam's apple, but if I were David Stern, I would want to silence this guy ASAMFP. The NBA can't afford to tarnish their image coming off such a successful season. Stern claims the league has a report about Donaghy and other potentially dirty officiating, but have yet to release it.
The only other professional sport gambling story to ever rival this in the modern era was Pete Rose back in the '80s. Rose bet on Cincinnati Reds games when he played for them and managed them. But there was never any evidence the Rose bet against the Reds. I'm not saying that this is okay or anything, but it's not like any of his actions would negatively change the outcome of the game like Donaghy. The debate on whether or not Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame is a topic for another day, but I think there is a glaring difference between a manager/player betting on games, and referees/umpires betting on games.
The timing of this sentencing works in Stern's favor. Late July versus early June or even late January is a BIG difference. The only other NBA news from today is Kwame Brown signing with Detroit (Darko V2?) and the Bobcats giving Emeka Okafor waaaay too much money to resign. But with the Olympics coming up and the regular season months away, you can be sure that the Commissioner will do everything he can to bury this thing even further than he has already tried to do. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a shred of sympathy for Tim Donaghy. If anything, I think he deserved a longer sentence. But with all of the evidence coming out about how easily Donaghy did what he did, I'm not even remotely convinced that no other referee bet on or altered games.
No comments:
Post a Comment