Posted on 06/10/2008 3:32:33 PM PDT by GraniteStateConservative
Ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy told the feds two refs fixed the outcome of one playoff series - and that officials were told not to eject star players from games for fear of hurting ticket sales.
The bombshell allegations are contained in a court document filed Tuesday by Donaghy's lawyer. It describes the “inner workings" of the NBA in which top league executives used referees to manipulate games.
Donaghy, who pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to charges of betting on games he officiated, told FBI agents “league officials would tell referees that they should withhold calling technical fouls on certain star players because doing so hurt ticket sales and television ratings," the document said.
Donaghy claims he was told that two refs who were “company men” acting in the interest of the NBA conspired to extend a playoff series in 2002 to a seventh game.
The referees allegedly ignored flagrant fouls committed by the team that needed to win. They also reportedly called "made-up fouls" against the other team which led to the ejection of two of their players. The team favored by the refs won that night and the next game to win the series.
The document does not name the teams. The Nets were in that playoff series, losing the championship finals to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Donaghy also claimed a supervising referee told refs that an unidentified NBA executive did not want them to call technical fouls on star players or boot them from the game.
Donaghy told feds the league reprimanded a referee who disobeyed that edict in January 2000 and ejected an unnamed star player from a game in the first quarter.
Lawyer John Lauro filed the four-page letter to Federal Judge Carol Amon because none of the information was included in the government’s letter to the judge seeking leniency for Donaghy when he is sentenced next month.
Lauro has gone to war against Brooklyn federal prosecutors for offering plea deals to Donaghy's betting accomplices that give them less time than the disgraced ref, despite his extensive cooperation.
Donaghy claims referees have accepted autographs, free merchandise and meals from team coaches and managers. He told probers one referee used a team's practice facility to exercise and another played tennis with an NBA coach.
"These activities were against NBA rules, indeed, such inappropriate relationships could influence the outcome of games," Lauro wrote.
Lauro said he withheld the names of the teams, referees and league officials because the feds may still investigate the allegations.
This is unfortunate, and I hope it’s not true, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.
ping to those from the previous Donaghy thread...
Steroids notwithstanding, baseball is still the cleanest sport. One guy throws it - the other guy either hits it or doesn’t. Not nearly as much room for official interference as in the NFL or the wretched NBA.
Heck it happened on the second to the last game with Spurs playing the Lakers. It was an OBVIOUS foul with seconds left on the clock the Spurs would have won that game but the ref never called it. After reviewing the clip the NBA acknowledged that a foul should have been called. That was all those stupid officials could say. We knew from there on the FIX WAS ON!
For many years I’ve just assumed the NBA refs were mentally retarded, but maybe there’s more to it than that. I’m not a Celtic partisan, but the non-travelling call on Radmanovich late in the game the other night was a perfect example of why I think the refs are either idiots or under orders. Radmanovich took four or five steps driving to the basket after that steal, and everybody in the house saw it except the refs.
"It sure looked that way to me. Especially with the Lakers going for 3 1/2 quarters and only going to the charity stripe twice compared to Boston getting 19 free throws in the first half alone."
What about those mystery fouls that were called whenever Dwayne Wade drove to the basket in the Finals? Nobody touched him and yet people were called for supposedly fouling him.
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