We’ve already established that Tim Donaghy is a crooked person who bet on NBA games that he officiated and fixed. Since he’s already been to jail to serve his time and the league never backed him up, he’s out for payback in the worst way possible: he’s written a book about the officiating corruption in the league that names names and cites specific examples. Although the book doesn’t have a publisher currently, excerpts have reached Deadspin and they’re here for our perusal.
First, here are some of the facts. We’ve already recognized that Donaghy was perfect at moving the spread and delivering. Additionally, one of the games we pinpointed as one he fixed even was mentioned in his excerpt. He even said the reason the free throw disparity favored the Knicks so greatly was that one of the officials was super friendly with Isiah Thomas. Makes sense. Anyway, more on the specifics from the book.
Donaghy specifically states that stars got preferential treatment and that lesser-known players like Raja Bell, who was a defensive stopper, got fouls called against him so he couldn’t shut down the stars as well. He also says that Allen Iverson was given a tough time by referees after he criticized Steve Javie. Donaghy specifically names referees and what their motivation was. The strongest charge was against Dick Bavetta, whom Donaghy called a company man that manipulated games and playoff series including the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Kings. Tim also said that referee Tommy Nunez did everything he could to fix the Suns/Spurs ‘07 Western Conference playoff series in favor of San Antonio. The Spurs of course went on to win the NBA Finals.
More Tim Donaghy on LBS:
Tim Donaghy’s Bookies Were Only Mob Wanna-Be’s
Games Fixed by Tim Donaghy
Tim Donaghy Was Beat Up in Prison
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More Hot Stories at larrybrownsports.comThis entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
More more more I love it! Ive been preaching the company man/superstar fix since the Lakers miraculous, free throw fueled, comeback game 7 win over Portland almost a decade ago. There are proven fixed games, specially in college, that are less lopsided than NBA games.
At least one good thing has come from this, anyone notice the last NBA playoffs? You didn’t see huge 25free throw disparities that were ohso common in the past. Spotlight got too hot, and even the feds are watching now…so try and call it fair, right?