The NBA is fixed

[Big Phil]

http://my.earthlink.net/channel/news/pr ... 0961414915

Disgraced NBA ref: Playoff games were manipulated
June 10, 2008 10:01 PM EDT

NEW YORK - NBA referees, influenced by cozy relationships with league officials, rigged a 2002 playoff series to force it to a revenue-boosting seven games, a former referee at the center of a gambling scandal alleged Tuesday.

Without identifying anyone or naming teams, Tim Donaghy also claimed the NBA routinely encouraged refs to ring up bogus fouls to manipulate results but discouraged them from calling technical fouls on star players to keep them in games and protect ticket sales and television ratings.

Speaking before the start of the NBA finals Game 3 featuring the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, NBA commissioner David Stern called the allegations baseless.

"All I can say is that he's looking for anything that will somehow shorten the sentence, and it's not going to happen," Stern said.

The allegations were contained in a letter filed by a lawyer for Donaghy, who pleaded guilty last year to felony charges alleging he took cash payoffs from gamblers and bet on games himself. The 41-year-old Donaghy faces up to 33 months in prison at sentencing on July 14.

"If the NBA wanted a team to succeed, league officials would inform referees that opposing players were getting away with violations," the letter said. "Referees then would call fouls on certain players, frequently resulting in victory for the opposing team."

The league called Donaghy's allegations false and self-serving, saying the scandal was limited to him and two co-defendants, both former high school classmates who also pleaded guilty to gambling charges.

Donaghy's lawyer has sought to convince a federal judge in Brooklyn that Donaghy, of Bradenton, Fla., deserves more credit for coming forward before he was charged to disclose behind-the-scenes misconduct within the NBA. The letter, filed Monday, suggests prosecutors have hurt Donaghy's chances for a lesser prison term by downplaying the extent of his cooperation.

Donaghy's attorney, John Lauro, and prosecutors declined comment.

"He's a singing, cooperating witness who is trying to get as light a sentence as he can," Stern said. "He turned on basically all of his colleagues in an attempt to demonstrate that he is not the only one who engaged in criminal activity. The U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one who is guilty of a crime. And he will be sentenced for that crime regardless of the desperate attempts to implicate as many people as he can."

In one of several allegations of corrupt refereeing, Donaghy said he learned in May 2002 that two referees known as "company men" were working a best-of-seven series in which "Team 5" was leading 3-2. In the sixth game, he alleged the referees purposely ignored personal fouls and called "made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6."

"Team 6" won the game and came back to win the series, the letter said.

Only the Los Angeles Lakers-Sacramento Kings series went to seven games during the 2002 playoffs. And the Lakers went on to win the championship.

At the time, consumer advocate Ralph Nader and the League of Fans, a sports industry watchdog group, sent a letter to Stern complaining about the officiating in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.

The Lakers, who beat Sacramento 106-102 in that game in Los Angeles, shot 27 free throws in the final quarter and scored 16 of their last 18 points at the line.

The letter also alleged manipulation during a 2005 playoff series.

"Team 3 lost the first two games in the series and Team 3's owner complained to NBA officials," the letter said. "Team 3's owner alleged that referees were letting a Team 4 player get away with illegal screens. NBA Executive Y told Referee Supervisor Z that the referees for that game were to enforce the screening rules strictly against that Team 4 player. ... The referees followed the league's instructions and Team 3 came back from behind to win the series. The NBA benefited from this because it prolonged the series, resulting in more tickets sold and more televised games."

In that same series, the letter says "Team 3" lost the first two games of the series and that team owner complained to NBA officials. The letter also alleges that the opposing team's coach later was fined $100,000 after revealing an NBA official informed him of the behind-the-scenes instructions.

That would correspond with the 2005 first-round playoff series between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks, in which Mark Cuban complained to officials and Jeff Van Gundy was fined.

Donaghy's letter said that in the first of several meetings with prosecutors and the FBI in New York in 2007, he named names while describing "various examples of improper interactions and relationships between referees and other league employees, such as players, coaches and management." For example, it said, referees broke NBA rules by hitting up players for autographs, socializing with coaches and accepting meals and merchandise from teams.

"The NBA remains vigilant in protecting the integrity of our game and has fully cooperated with the government at every stage of its investigation," Richard Buchanan, NBA executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. "The only criminal activity uncovered is Mr. Donaghy's."

Donaghy, who pleaded guilty last year to charges he conspired to engage in wire fraud and transmitted betting information through interstate commerce, has said he made NBA bets for four years, even wagering on games he worked. He also admitted recommending bets to high-stakes gamblers and collecting $5,000 if his picks hit.

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Associated Press Sports Writer Brian Mahoney in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Here's the first NBA referee to cross the striped line and admit publicly what everyone has already known for years - the NBA is fixed and the referees give certain players/teams preferential treatment.

[Cecelia5578]

I hope its revealed that they gave Jordan preferential treatment. That fucker fouled and travelled so much its not funny. Remember Byron Russell in the finals??

[une]

This is just confirming something that NBA fans have known for years. The NBA has always had a strong bias for teams with superstars are ones from large markets. Everyone knows this.

[Ender]

I hope its revealed that they gave Jordan preferential treatment. That fucker fouled and travelled so much its not funny. Remember Byron Russell in the finals??

As an honest man I am compelled to admit his trademark palmover dribbling was in fact traveling. As a Chicago native, I am compelled to tell you to go fuck yourself, Michael was the greatest thing to happen to the 90s.

[Darth Wong]

Meh. No matter how many scandals rock the professional sports world, the masses will continue to attend the games, chant the slogans, buy the merchandise, get into fights with fans of other teams, and in general, make fools of themselves.

[Twoyboy]

I hope its revealed that they gave Jordan preferential treatment. That fucker fouled and travelled so much its not funny. Remember Byron Russell in the finals??

I only saw the highlight reels, not many full games, so I don't know about the fouls. But he didn't get away with travels any more than other spectacular players at the time. Shawn Kemp used to take about 4 steps before the basket. This has been common knowledge for about 20 years, if you make you move spectacular, you're less likely to be called for the travel or the charge.

It doesn't surprise me one bit though that games are rigged. Like all sporting leagues, it's a business, and thus is run to maximise profits.

[Tsyroc]

I've been down on the NBA ever since it started allowing traveling and everyone started carrying the ball so they could do all their fancy moves. Somewhere along the line it basically became organized street ball with far too much contact for a supposedly non-contact sport. IMO.


Personally I thought the NBA was fixed back in the 90s when the Barkley Phoenix Suns (who I wanted to win) came from three down to defeat Magic Johnson's Lakers in the semi-finals and then go on to lose to the Bulls in 6.

Basketball has pretty much been ruined for me as a spectator sport for ages. I can't remember the last time I sat and watched an NBA or NCAA game. I've started getting some perverse enjoyment out of the American Olympic team packed with NBA players losing out to teams from other countries where they believe in the fundamentals and play more as a team.

I see professional sports more as an entertainment than as sport these days anyway so if people like the NBA as it is that's fine with me. No one is making them watch it.

[Cecelia5578]

I hope its revealed that they gave Jordan preferential treatment. That fucker fouled and travelled so much its not funny. Remember Byron Russell in the finals??

I only saw the highlight reels, not many full games, so I don't know about the fouls. But he didn't get away with travels any more than other spectacular players at the time. Shawn Kemp used to take about 4 steps before the basket. This has been common knowledge for about 20 years, if you make you move spectacular, you're less likely to be called for the travel or the charge.

It doesn't surprise me one bit though that games are rigged. Like all sporting leagues, it's a business, and thus is run to maximise profits.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08172007/sp ... kerber.htm

[Haruko]

I was already not into the tribalism that most NBA fans have, and only bothered to watch some of the playoff games, and now I read this article.

[Molyneux]

Is there any actual evidence, or just this guy spouting off to try to save his own skin?

[Big Phil]

Is there any actual evidence, or just this guy spouting off to try to save his own skin?

What would constitute actual evidence in this case, other than watching the games and watching referees repeatedly blow phantom fouls and ignore obvious offensive and defensive fouls by star players or favored teams. Are you thinking there's an "Evil Referee Cheating Guide" laying around that every referee must read?

[Molyneux]

Is there any actual evidence, or just this guy spouting off to try to save his own skin?

What would constitute actual evidence in this case, other than watching the games and watching referees repeatedly blow phantom fouls and ignore obvious offensive and defensive fouls by star players or favored teams. Are you thinking there's an "Evil Referee Cheating Guide" laying around that every referee must read?

No, just thinking that this guy is hardly an unimpeachable source.
I haven't watched basketball since "NBA Jam" was a cutting-edge game.

[Qwerty 42]

Eh, it's just another symptom of the NBA's frightening ineptitude in competing with MLB, NFL, or NHL.

[Desdinova]

... which is why I've taken to enjoying college basketball so thoroughly in the last few years. Not everyone has the ability to constantly dunk the ball in college, and players sometimes make mistakes--which, to me, is way more interesting than 'perfection'. Besides that, I enjoy it when the players actually seem interested in the game.

[CaptainZoidberg]

Why don't they raise the basket and put it farther out from the end of the court? That way there would be more tension and excitement as people go up for shots, and less of the boredom as everyone dunks the ball.

I don't get the thing with dunking. It's not exciting to see someone lay the ball into the basket using their overwhelming height. It is exciting to see the ball go into the air and just barely make it in.

[Elfdart]

When the Donaghy story first broke, local sports radio host Randy Galloway and a writer from a paper in Arizona got hold of the tape of one of the games Donaghy fixed. They went through every call and non-call. As it turned out, the other two refs made worse calls (and more of them) than HE DID! That's right: The guy who was fixing the contest called a better game than the other refs!

[Darth Lucifer]

Proof of widespread steroid use in the NBA would be the icing on this particular cake.

[Ender]

Personally I thought the NBA was fixed back in the 90s when the Barkley Phoenix Suns (who I wanted to win) came from three down to defeat Magic Johnson's Lakers in the semi-finals and then go on to lose to the Bulls in 6.

WTF? John Paxon won it for the Bulls by 1 point with a 3 pointer with less then 10 seconds left on the clock, and the Suns missing their return fast break layup. Refs had nothing to do with it.