MERGED: NBA Ref FIXED games. MOB betting scam./ NBA concern "off the charts"

[MikeO]

I didn't see this report as of when I am typing this. But gong on what you just typed above, if there are MORE refs, this could become the biggest sports story of our generation.

I mean if it comes out 4, 5, or 6 refs are betting on games and shaved points/fixed games, we might see the crumbling of a major sports promotion before our eyes.

If there was ever a time for one of these billionares like Trump, Turner...whover to throw around some money and try a start-up professional basketball promotion this might be the time!!!!

This story will get more interesting each day. Mafia, fixed games, betting, $$$$......throw in some sex appeal and we got a major motion picture

 

[MikeO]

39 foul shots to 8. That is fixing a game. NOT point shaving!!!!


From ESPN.com

Those studying Donaghy's games might have noticed some trends.
When the home team was favored by 0-4½ points, it went 5-12 in games officiated by Donaghy this season, according to Covers.com, a Web site that tracks referee trends. Home underdogs were 1-7 when the spread was 5-9.5 points.

Donaghy was part of a crew working the Heat-Knicks game in New York in February when the Knicks shot 39 free throws to the Heat's eight, technical fouls were called on Heat coach Pat Riley and assistant Ron Rothstein, and the Knicks won by six. New York was favored by 4½.

 

[MikeO]

woooooooooooooo, I just say the report on ESPN. NY Daily news and ESPN are reporting Tim Donaghy is going to more than likely "flip" on OTHER refs and players who were shaving points/fixing games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[King Felix]

why would you say "wooooooooo" about that?

 

[Roman529]

Where this is one ****roach (Donaghy) there is likely to be others. Let's see David Stern try to smooth this over. Just another reason why fans are losing interest in the NBA.

 

[Prime Time]

If this is true. The NBA is going to be in a HUGE hole. It would take years and years to regain the credibility it will lose.

 

[bullseyeguy]

If Im an NBA owner right now, I am selling to the highest bidder....

 

[Prime Time]

This is going to seriously hurt the league which is already struggling. If they find out more then one ref was shaving points this could destroy the league like MikeO originally said for a long amount of time.

Yeah. They'd be on a downward spiral for a while. League will be in major trouble...lose lots of $$. Stern must be bamboozeled in his office right now...what would you do? Pretty tough..

 

[Prime Time]

If Im an NBA owner right now, I am selling to the highest bidder....

You said it. This could ruin the leagues and set it back a decade or so. This just isn't good. It sucks to be honest because I had started become more of a fan of the NBA.

 

[bullseyeguy]

Also, did the ref have anything to do with the Suns missing FTs, 3 pointers, mid range shots, and turning the ball over? You act like this ref was the reason Phoenix lost.

Of course this shouldn't be a surprise b/c if Phoenix did win this game even with the ref being involved, I'd bet you wouldn't even use the ref as a pawn for this discussion.

Losing does crazy things doesn't it?

Here are a couple quotes form the Simmons article...

Imagine being a Suns fan right now. You just spent the past two months believing that your team got screwed by the Stoudemire/Diaw suspensions, that you would have won Game 1 if Nash didn't get hurt, that you would have taken Game 3 if you hadn't been screwed by the officials, that you would have cruised in Game 5 if two of your best guys weren't suspended for running towards their best player as he lay in a crumpled heap. Now it looks like an allegedly compromised referee worked Game 3.

Here's what I wrote after the third game -- the Spurs were favored by four, with an over/under of 200.5 -- after San Antonio prevailed, 108-101, thanks to Amare Stoudemire playing just 21 minutes because of foul trouble:

• Congratulations to Greg Willard, Tim Donaghy and Eddie F. Rush for giving us the most atrociously officiated game of the playoffs so far: Game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series. Bennett Salvatore, Tom Washington and Violet Palmer must have been outraged that they weren't involved in this mess. Good golly. Most of the calls favored the Spurs, but I don't even think the refs were biased -- they were so incompetent that there was no rhyme or reason to anything that was happening. Other than the latest call in NBA history (a shooting foul for Manu Ginobili whistled three seconds after the play, when everyone was already running in the other direction), my favorite moment happened near the end, when the game was already over and they called a cheap bump on Bruce Bowen against Nash, so the cameras caught Mike D'Antoni (the most entertaining coach in the league if he's not getting calls) screaming sarcastically, "Why start now? Why bother?" What a travesty. Not since the cocaine era from 1978-1986 has the league faced a bigger ongoing issue than crappy officiating.

If you're a diehard Suns fan, this now becomes the toughest playoff loss in NBA history. You have a legitimate case that you were screwed.
If you're a diehard NBA fan, you're horrified but strangely hopeful, because we needed a tipping point to change a stagnant league that was headed in the wrong direction ... and maybe this was it.

 

[finfansince72]

Easy Cowboys. I don't see this destroying the league. Setting it back? Sure, maybe on the level of the strike in baseball years ago. I don't intend to stop watching games, Im sure many feel the same. The league will clean house and things will get back to normal after a while. This is a huge story and I'm not trying to say it isn't but don't get the tombstone ready for the NBA's grave it will survive.

 

[phunwin]

why would you say "wooooooooo" about that?

Because Mike's a journalist, and now has plenty to write about.

Bill Simmons had a fantastic article about this on Sunday. He brought up something I hadn't noticed: remember that atrocious Suns-Spurs Game 3? The one where so many calls went for the Spurs that late in the game, when Bruce Bowen got whistled for bumping Steve Nash, Mike D'Antoni screamed "why start now?"

Well, I don't even have to tell you what ref worked that game.

That Game 3 was the crucial point of that series and set up everything that followed. Once they won that series, the Spurs were nearly a lock to win the Championship (just as the Suns would have been). Anyway, Simmons points out that Suns fans have a very legitimate gripe that they were screwed out of a game, and possibly a Championship. Not just done wrong by a couple atrocious calls (like the 1987 Pistons, or the 1995 Bulls, or the 1998 Jazz) or by generally one-sided officiating (like the 2006 Mavericks) but legitimately screwed by a crooked ref.

How do you live that down?

 

[phunwin]

woooooooooooooo, I just say the report on ESPN. NY Daily news and ESPN are reporting Tim Donaghy is going to more than likely "flip" on OTHER refs and players who were shaving points/fixing games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If there are MORE refs involved, and players, this would be the biggest scandal in sports history. If it's one ref, the league can survive. If there are a bunch of refs involved, though...wow. I think the NBA is big enough (and more importantly, global enough) to survive a big scandal, but it would take a HUGE hit. (The NHL, by contrast, would be sunk.)

The global aspect of this is important because the NBA's done such a great job of pitching to European, South American and Asian fans, which not only gives it a bigger base to work with, but a group of fans that have seen this sort of thing before, and aren't as likely to be shocked by it. If it's just Donaghy, this pales in comparison to the Italian Serie A scandal from 2006.

Here's what interests me, as an attorney: could there be a class action by gamblers who lost money on the games that Donaghy may have influenced? The Knicks-Heat game with the 39-8 free throw disparity comes to mind, as does Game 3 of Suns-Spurs. I think they'd have an uphill battle in court, but it would be interesting to see if it comes to pass.

 

[MikeO]

If there are MORE refs involved, and players, this would be the biggest scandal in sports history. If it's one ref, the league can survive. If there are a bunch of refs involved, though...wow. I think the NBA is big enough (and more importantly, global enough) to survive a big scandal, but it would take a HUGE hit. (The NHL, by contrast, would be sunk.)

.

IF there are a bunch of refs and some players involved.....the league WILL go under! It can't recover from that.

1 ref is a big deal but they can just remove the ref and life goes on. But multiple refs and players........ouch. Death Nail!

 

[Oboy]

WOW... if there are more refs or as the article claims possibly players... involved... The NBA is in DEEP Trouble. They may never rebound.

Federal authorities believe the referee at the center of the betting and game-fixing probe rocking the NBA will cooperate with investigators - and possibly name other officials or players involved in the scandal, law enforcement sources told The News.