This is deep doodoo for the NBA — really bad news. Apparently the ref in question got himself into the trouble by wagering on games with the wrong people to begin with. From the New York Post:

THE FBI is investigating an NBA referee who allegedly was betting on basketball games - including ones he was officiating during the past two seasons - as part of an organized-crime probe in the Big Apple, The Post has learned.
…
The sources indicated the referee apparently had a gambling problem, slipped into debt and fell prey to mob thugs.

“That’s how he got himself into this predicament” by wagering with mob-connected bookies, one source said.

Now that is some messed up stuff if I’ve ever seen anything. You know, wouldn’t be the first time people had suspicions that games were fixed and that the refs had something to do with it. This would give us second thoughts every single time we saw a questionable foul called towards the end of a game. This is incredible. This is insane. This will positively blow the lid off of sports.

Big Ups to SPORTSbyBROOKS who was all over this story

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• I Helped Fix NBA Games, Too
• Best Referee Penalty Call Ever

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 and is filed under Basketball, Gossip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.