NBA Ref to Rat. . .
Tim Donaghy, the former NBA referee who recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce, apparently will give information to the feds regarding involvement of other referees in placing bets. It is unknown if he will state that any of them bet on basketball, or even on sports for that matter, but it really doesn’t matter. The NBA has a rule against officials gambling at all, except for horseracing during the offseason.
The NBA is already reeling from this entire episode, and fans for years have felt that things were amiss with the officiating. But commissioner Stern has stated throughout this entire affair that this was an isolated event caused by a ‘rogue official.’ If it turns out that other refs were gambling on other sports, the damage might be somewhat limited. If it turns out that any were gambling on basketball, this could be one of the most major crisis in sports history.
Stern has stated time and again that the league has measures in place to track and grade the officials, but Donaghy managed to grade out among the better refs in the league. What kind of measuring stick do the use? How can Stern and the league have any credibility? Of course, it’s easy now to go back and determine which games could have been affected, but shouldn’t the league be doing exercises like this year-round?
This affair could end up being worse than the “Black Sox” scandal when a team decided to throw the World Series. It would be incredibly worse for the league officials to be caught shaving points, calling bad fouls, or otherwise adjusting the outcome of the games. Perhaps Stern is right, and the information Donaghy gives the feds will only state that some refs liked to play craps, or blackjack. Even betting on baseball or the Super Bowl would be bad, but not devastating. If any other refs are caught gambling on the NBA, then this firestorm has just begun.
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