Tim Donaghy was a referee in the National Basketball Association. He evidently had a pretty serious gambling problem. It is alleged that he bet on games that he officiated. It is alleged that he "fixed" some of them although more likely he helped gamblers-and himself- make informed wagers about the point spread rather than altering the outcomes of games outright. That would be too hard to do. He is supposed to be cooperating with Uncle Sam and it is said that he will turn himself in to the feds up in New York. This is a likely scenario seeing as how the U.S Attorney has filed a Bill of Information against a "John Doe" up there that alleges these facts. They don't stick a target who is cooperating up in front of the Grand Jury.
This is NBA Commissioner David Stern's nightmare scenario. This is the sum of all fears.
NBA fans tend to be a paranoid lot and this paranoia reaches full flower during the playoffs. The most persistent complaint you hear is that the NBA instructs the referees to emphasize certain calls which is calculated to skew the game toward the team that will bring the best TV ratings in the Finals. As I have written in this space, the notion that the NBA brass could manipulate the outcome of games from the corporate offices in New York is laughable. It would take too many people acting in concert while simultaneously keeping their mouths shut to pull that off.
Me, I watch a lot of basketball on both the professional and college level. I have seen things done by the zebras that have made me scratch my head. I have watched any of a number of games in which I thought the officiating wasn't very good.
It has never occurred to me-not once, not ever-that the officials might be on the take. That idea, up until now, was completely unthinkable.
And this is the problem. From here on out, the notion that the refs might be on the arm to some bookie somewhere will be merely outlandish. It won't be unthinkable.
In the first place, this sort of thing is not unheard of in basketball albeit, up until the recent disclosures, it has only been uncovered on the college level. You had the point shaving scandals in the fifties and the gamblers got to players at Boston College, Arizona State and Tulane (full disclosure: one of my Alma Maters) in the eighties.
Emphasis on players. This is what has got to be causing Stern to lose sleep. The odds are good-pardon the expression-that there are no players involved. They make too much money. They are probably not susceptible for the most part to an overture from the wrong side of the street. Even the ones with gambling debts and/or legal problems. They simply make too much money.
But an NBA official makes only about 200 grand which isn't enough to pay the mortgage and keep the flat-nose types happy at the same time. And lest you think they won't give trouble a listen, I remind you that more than one NBA official got indicted a few years back for tax evasion when they cashed in their frequent flier miles and didn't tell the IRS. So Stern can't be too sure at this juncture if indeed this is an isolated case despite what he said yesterday during his press conference on the subject.
Professional sports requires much of its patrons. A night out at the game with the family can take a chunk of change. In exchange, the average fan deserves to know that what he is watching isn't a taller version of the World Wrestling Foundation.
Wondering if the refs are on the take is no longer unthinkable. This is the nightmare scenario.
This is the sum of all fears.
2 comments:
My books are all packed in boxes, so I can't get the exact quaote, but in Semi-Tough, published in 1972, Billy Clyde Puckett said something along the lines of "If two out of three NFL games are called straight," that's a hell of a lot better percentage than they have in the NBA.
I've always wondered about that.
I remember having to go up to the old Med School dorm at UAMS to see big Rollo-whom Polycarp has met- for some reason. This was 20 years ago. I forgot the number of his room and I was going to ask someone if I ran into them in the hall until I heard a familiar voice yelling, " They're shaving goddamnit!"
Rollo and a buddy were sitting in their scrubs watching a college basketball game. Rollo knows his hoops. He was All-State and he played for Cliff back when the Warriors were good.
Basketball is the only sport over which the usually typically paranoid scent of cheating has lingered. But basketball has a sporadic history of this kind of thing. But it typically involves the players and usually the guard who run everything.
The problem w/basketball is that the officiating tends to be almost-for lack of a better word-impressionistic. Even more so than baseball behind the plate.
It is easy to view inconsistencies or laziness w/a sinister motive. Which most sane folks blew off until today.
We shall see. Was he the only one? Undoubtedly he will sing if he can to save his scalp.
I'm a baseball and basketball guy. This is the worst thing I have I have seen in sports. Ever.
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