Jump to content

ESPN: How former ref Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games


Machinator

Recommended Posts

Yep.  And I've said for years that this Donaghy scandal is the best thing to happen to the NBA, because it shined a light on all of the cockroach refs and they scurried (yes, I'm talking about you, Dick Bavetta and Bennett Salvatore) off into retirement.  

I had actually quit watching the NBA because I thought the officiating was so obviously crooked.  I had a friend tell me a few years ago that I was "missing out, because the NBA is much better now."  I remember flipping on an important playoff game and the first thing I noticed is that it wasn't being officiated by elderly white men. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NBA is still corrupt as shit. They made Donaghy look like a lone operator. If you read between the lines of the article and what the FBI agent said, you can see that the NBA leaked the investigation so the FBI wouldnt implicate the other refs. Donaghy called Scott Foster 135 times in the 07 season, those calls being 30 seconds on average in length. The ref Foster called the next most was for a total of 12 calls. Newsflash, Foster is still reffing. Im sure there are others.   

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, CurlyDumps said:

The details of the operation and the players involved are new to me. up until now all I really knew is that he bet on games he officiated, and maybe some shady gambler types were involved?

some of the stuff i remember from what i read back then:

•The referees tip the ball boys for the things that they do pregame. The refs would sometimes have a bet where the first ref who called a foul had to tip the ball boys for all three officials. They'd let guys just brutalize each other for 4-5 minutes until one of them was just absolutely forced to call a foul., and then all of a sudden everything was called tight. 

•Some older ref, possibly Dick Bavetta, hated Iverson. Donaghy would tell his mob guys to bet against AI's team when Bavetta officiated. He told of one specific time when AI was in Denver and Bavetta (I think) was officiating, and he told his mob guys to take the other team and the points. AI got three fouls in the 1Q and spent a lot of time on the bench and the opposing team covered easily.

•Officials climbed the ladder by being comoany men. Period. If you wanted to work the playoffs and work the finals and be at the top of the ladder you had to prove that you would take care of whatever it was that the league wanted. The NBA front office is too savvy to give direct orders, but certain guys (Joey Crawford for example) would be spoken to and the message would be clear: make sure that "x" happens in this game/series. 

There was so much more. Just go to google and do searches involving Tim Donaghy, his book, excerpts from said book, and the NBA's blocking him from publishing it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I saw the 2006 Mavs/Heat Final flip direction on a dime and it was all downhill after the Mavs had one the first two games and were cruising in the 3rd game, I started really thinking that the league was determined not to let Mark Cuban win a title.

Then, when I saw Dwayne Wade drive to the left side of the lane and go up to Dirk, who was standing still... outside of the little circle with his arms straight above him, and elbow the shit out of Dirk's ribs before fading away for a shot and the refs called the foul on Dirk, I turned away from the TV (I was at the gym) and basically wrote off the NBA until I turned on the Mavs/Lakers game 3, late in the 4th quarter while living down in Buenos Aires. I saw online that the Mavs were winning by double digits and pulling away and I thought "I can't believe that the refs are going to let the Mavs sweep the Lakers."

But the Lakers were dealing with the fallout of Kobe's wife outing another Laker for cheating on his wife and the Lakers' locker room was a mess. Even so, I thought that the refs would stop the Mavs, but the Mavs were shooting over 50% from behind the 3-point arc and the Lakers were playing like absolute shit. When the Mavs won by over 30 points in LA and Mark Cuban hadn't made a single comment about the refs, I thought...

1) Maybe Cuban is going to bite his tongue this year and...
2) If he does, maybe the league will allow the Mavs to actually win games.

That year the Mavs won it all and I was happy... but then I went back to being done with the NBA. Fuck that league. Fuck fixed games. Who gives a fuck about a league that has teams play more than ~38 games a year? Who cares how Team X is playing in November? Or December? or January?... While it's not as bad as baseball, Basketball & Hockey are just mind numbing sports to follow.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

some of the stuff i remember from what i read back then:

•The referees tip the ball boys for the things that they do pregame. The refs would sometimes have a bet where the first ref who called a foul had to tip the ball boys for all three officials. They'd let guys just brutalize each other for 4-5 minutes until one of them was just absolutely forced to call a foul., and then all of a sudden everything was called tight. 

Some older ref, possibly Dick Bavetta, hated Iverson. Donaghy would tell his mob guys to bet against AI's team when Bavetta officiated. He told of one specific time when AI was in Denver and Bavetta (I think) was officiating, and he told his mob guys to take the other team and the points. AI got three fouls in the 1Q and spent a lot of time on the bench and the opposing team covered easily.

•Officials climbed the ladder by being comoany men. Period. If you wanted to work the playoffs and work the finals and be at the top of the ladder you had to prove that you would take care of whatever it was that the league wanted. The NBA front office is too savvy to give direct orders, but certain guys (Joey Crawford for example) would be spoken to and the message would be clear: make sure that "x" happens in this game/series. 

There was so much more. Just go to google and do searches involving Tim Donaghy, his book, excerpts from said book, and the NBA's blocking him from publishing it. 

You sure it wasn't Bennie Salvatore? 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Napoleon said:

That year the Mavs won it all and I was happy... but then I went back to being done with the NBA. Fuck that league. Fuck fixed games. Who gives a fuck about a league that has teams play more than ~38 games a year? Who cares how Team X is playing in November? Or December? or January?... While it's not as bad as baseball, Basketball & Hockey are just mind numbing sports to follow.

So you like shiny objects, huh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love how the NBA made him the scapegoat. Yeah, he was definitely the lone ranger. No way does it include most of the other refs and go all the way to the top. One of the worst screw jobs/fixes was Game 6 of the Kings/Lakers. Sacramento was on their way to making the Finals. But the NBA couldn't have that small market in the Finals. Especially not against the Nets. They didn't have the star power the Lakers did and the national appeal.

I might be biased but Mavs/Heat is another one. But I don't think I am biased as it is nationally accepted that the refs influenced the series big time with how they allowed Wade to go rogue and do as he pleased and nothing Dallas could do. The amount of free throws he shot were absurd. Now Dallas did have their own faults and were there with an inexperienced coach vs a vet In Pat Riley. Heat also had Shaq and Mourning, two vets who helped a young Wade. I am not even mad at Wade because of course a player is going to do whatever he can get away with. Why not?

I always stop and wonder how much fixed are sports? All of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, pops said:

 

And the money those guys made while Timmy D only took home 2 to 5k a game is laughable. What an idiot. 

 

Isn't it?  God, I can't get over this insane new revelation in the Donaghy saga.  Dude was risking EVERYTHING for 2 grand/game.

Maybe it was more about the power and control than the money. Some tidbits about his personal life jumped out at me, like how Kim (the ex-wife) said she was "truly afraid of him" and didn't confront him because she was "scared." Sounds like he was a shitty father and husband, and possibly victimizing Kim, who may have been a victim of coercive control.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...