Report: Donaghy bet on over 100 games he worked.

Basketball Fan · Post #1 » by **Basketball Fan** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:07 pm

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3400551

Reports: Donaghy bet on more than 100 games he worked
ESPN.com news services

Updated: May 17, 2008, 8:49 AM ET

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on more than 100 games that he worked, federal prosecutors said in a court filing Friday, according to media reports.

Donaghy pleaded guilty last year to charges he conspired to engage in wire fraud and transmitted betting information through interstate commerce. He was alleged to have given a pair of gamblers inside information, including tips on which crews would officiate games and how the various officials and players interacted, and collected $5,000 if his picks were correct.

According to court filings, Donaghy bet on about 30 games each season starting in 2003 and 14 games during the 2006-2007 season, the New York Post reported.

Donaghy, who started placing bets on NBA games in 2003, is now scheduled to be sentenced on July 14.

"The government's investigation revealed that Donaghy provided picks for anywhere from 30 to 40 games for each of those three seasons," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Goldberg said in a letter filed Friday at U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, according to the New York Daily News.

Two other men who were high school classmates with Donaghy, James Battista and Thomas Martino, have pleaded guilty to their role in the scheme.

Kunlun · Post #2 » by **Kunlun** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:29 pm

The amount of games he bet on is insane. The difference he could've made in those games could've decided a lot of things.

mcmasterballer1 · Post #3 » by **mcmasterballer1** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:51 pm

this is really sad... lol sucks to be a suns fan because every year SOMETHING which could've gone either way legitimately screwed you guys (well amares injury...)

magicfan4life05 · Post #4 » by **magicfan4life05** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:52 pm

sad thing is it would be really really naive to think he was/is the only one

theTHIEF · Post #5 » by **theTHIEF** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:57 pm

bet let's not forget

The "We lost because of refs" Myth

he only bet on them and won by luck, because refs don't determine the outcome of a game...

UDRIH14 · Post #6 » by **UDRIH14** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:00 pm

cant wait till the responses of those sunsfans....

theTHIEF · Post #7 » by **theTHIEF** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:06 pm

well, maybe it's true...you really can't argue it now...I am almost positive that he gave the Suns a game down in Orlando in Dec. of 06...Dwight Howard picked up 4 offensive calls in the first quarter, which had not happened before that and has not happened since then. Darko, Hill and Nelson also got whistled for some extremely questionable calls...I just sat there in disbelief the whole time and said that if ever I had doubts about a game being rigged, this would be the one I would put my money on, no pun intended...

Birth of the Cool · Post #8 » by **Birth of the Cool** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:07 pm

the sad thing is the quality of the refs in the NBA in this era has been so bad you would be hard pressed to see what games were badly officiated on purpose or because of ineptitude.

NOTHING WILL CHANGE. After the scandal David Stern had the gall to stand up in a televised press conference and not only say the Scandal was isolated (possibly...) but went out of his way to say the NBA had the best officiated league of the major sports.

Stern would rather turn a blind eye to how crappy officiating in the NBA has become (WORST of the major sports BY FAR) in fear that confirming this will turn people away from the NBA. IMO he is doing a great disservice to the game by not tackling this issue head on. When casual and hardcore fans (and even NBA players) make comments about how "funny" the Dallas/Miami final was, when people still talk about the Lakers/Kings series, when you see the disparity in calls home/away in the playoffs, when flopping has become a legitimate defensive play, when Joey Crawford still has a job....it's just a huge joke.

I barely ever complain about ref's in the forums for the teams I view even though I see awful calls (against team I cheer for / and opposing team) because I realize it's now just part of the NBA game. It's really sad.

NHL Hockey went down this path a few years ago when their ref's were a huge joke and they made a concerted effort to improve the quality of the ref's because they admitted to the problem that affected the integrity of the game. Stern still see's $$ over integrity and until that changes we will continue to see this garbage night in / night out.

end rant

Storm Surge · Post #9 » by **Storm Surge** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:13 pm

this messes up the integrity of over 100 NBA games, regular season or playoffs.

this is crap

Low-Ki · Post #10 » by **Low-Ki** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:14 pm

Which is truly telling is that this story barely made a ripple of a story and died a quick death as well. Nobody really cared it seems - that's craziness.

Blame Rasho · Post #11 » by **Blame Rasho** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:25 pm

You would think that the IRS would audit him considering that the money had to go somewhere from betting.

faze · Post #12 » by **faze** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:37 pm

Forget about terrible and corrupt refs, the real problem with the league is the out of control in-game entertainment.

magicfan4life05 · Post #13 » by **magicfan4life05** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:56 pm

faze wrote:Forget about terrible and corrupt refs, the real problem with the league is the out of control in-game entertainment.

so true

btw, dont expect this headline to be on nbatv anytime soon :roll:

i agree with low-ki, this story is really going unnoticed for some reason, initally i thought it was because it happened during the offseason, but even now its a total non story for some reason

good job stern, sweeping it under the rug :clap:

Post #14 » by **bleu** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:13 pm

Teams very well CAN lose because of the refs. It's not a myth at all. The really sad part about this whole thing is that I'd be willing to bet that over 25% of NBA refs have bet on games that they are officiating at one time or another.

Philly Fresh · Post #15 » by **Philly Fresh** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:13 pm

Why isn't this on ESPN?

DraftBoy10 · Post #16 » by **DraftBoy10** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:15 pm

vainsake wrote:Teams very well CAN lose because of the refs. It's not a myth at all. The really sad part about this whole thing is that I'd be willing to bet that over 25% of NBA refs have bet on games that they are officiating at one time or another.

These words must go unspoken.

Post #17 » by **bleu** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:18 pm

Philly Fresh wrote:Why isn't this on ESPN?

Because they don't want to publicize how **** up this league really is.

magicfan4life05 · Post #18 » by **magicfan4life05** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:23 pm

^ definitely, what can they say

In other news on sportscenter, the corrupt ref donaghy bet on over 100 games he worked in the NBA, and will be prosecuted soon.

Be sure not to miss, GMC shootaround tonight ON ABC/ESPN as the Celtics take on the Cavs in game 7 for the right to play in the conference finals!!!

JoshB914 · Post #19 » by **JoshB914** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:27 pm

That's right, Donaghy bet on games. Therefore this season's NBA Playoffs are fixed. Give me a break, guys.

I said it once and I said it again, if you think this league is fixed then you shouldn't be knowingly supporting a corrupt product. So shame on you.

Birth of the Cool · Post #20 » by **Birth of the Cool** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:48 pm

JoshB914 wrote:That's right, Donaghy bet on games. Therefore this season's NBA Playoffs are fixed. Give me a break, guys.

I said it once and I said it again, if you think this league is fixed then you shouldn't be knowingly supporting a corrupt product. So shame on you.

I never said the games were fixed but you'd be rather naive to buy into Stern's story that this was an isolated incident. The aftermath of the scandal is likely that other ref's stopped betting on games they were handling but if you think pre-scandal that Donaghy was the only one then you probably think Steroids is used by only a miniscule # of baseball players and are always isolated incidents.

To me the problem is not only the corrupt official(s) but the degradation of the officiating in this league. It's a joke and has been for years. It's a shame because the talent in this league is great and people (like me) want to watch high level talent of basketball but do so watching these zebras ruin the games.

If you can't agree the officiating in the NBA is awful these days then I doubt you have been watching the NBA for long. I've watched since Magic/Bird era and this is the lowest point for the quality of officiating in the league.

but please go ahead & support David Stern's aggressive plan to stop in-game entertainment and to fix player's dress codes because these things are asked for, nay demanded for the continued integrity of the game we all love.