donaghy reffed our game last year at orlando in feb. saw on espn that it was a game under review. i went back and watched it (thanks tivo) and he made 3 unbelievable calls in the last 8 minutes. one phantom foul vs. rafer that was clearly committed by head and then gave alston a tech for arguing (it was his 5th foul). another official tried to tell him that he was wrong. bullard and worrell were going nuts. he didnt change the call. then two more late calls vs. head. man...it was so obvious in hindsight. does anyone else remember that game?
What effects did the calls have? Was the game's outcome altered? Was the over covered when it appeared it was not going to be?
Yeah, I was actually at that game. The game was WAY closer that it ever should have been, and I do remember the tech on Skip... Glad it didn't cost us the game, not sure what the final spread was either or who covered, I'm sure you could find out though...
I actually remember this game also. if im not mistaken it was a day game. i was in my car and Gene Peterson said that somthing like "This has been one of the worst officated games he has ever seen"......the magic got a bunch of freethrows at the end...the missed like 20 though
My guess is that there is more than one official on the take. If you make very little money, then it's easy to squeeze the guys for more money.
this was the game that was on a Sunday in which it was the first game in years where they didn't show the game live. I believe it was Feb 25th, i remember cause I watched the movie "Number 23" which came out on the 23rd so that would make Sunday the 25th. I believe it was a game in which we were blowing them out and for some reason made it a close game at the end, so yea, pretty obvious on that one.
I wouldn't be surprised this thing gets really, really ugly before it is all said and done. With the FBI involved and the theory going around that the NBA organization continued to allow him to referee games after donaghy was discovered so that the FBI could maintain "surveillance" on other participants (mobsters, etc) and the protection local law enforcement is giving him he may be whistle-blowing on something much bigger than just himself. Hopefully he is the only ref involved but we will see soon enough.
If anyone has footage of the game, it might be worthwhile to post the "lowlights" on youtube... The one on the Spurs/Suns is spreading like crazy, they even mentioned it on NPR.
although i didnt watch the game, from what you people are telling me, this is obviously a fishy game. but like the others said. good thing he didnt cost us the game.
i just wanna say that a dumb@$$ ref that would bet on games and make calls to influence his bets may also make horrible calls in games he is not betting on simply because he is a dumb@$$
I would imagine that he was effecting the over/under more than the point spread. You can't really stop the other team from hitting shots, but you can call extra fouls to add points to the total score. That is what I imagine he was doing, making sure the over hit on certain games. DD
Keep in mind that the issue is about point spread ...not wins/losses. If a bad call is intentionally made ...then Donehey knows that the player will argue the call which gives him a perfect chance to call a technical resulting in another free throw ...which affects point spread. So don't be so quick to dismiss the charges. Yea, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this scandal grows. What has always struck me is David Stern's staunch support of the Ref's in the face of obvious issues of concern. Just look at how harshly Stern responded to JVG simply for mentioning the thought. Why is Stern so defensive? I doubt it, but I somehow wouldn't be surprised if Stern is somehow knowing of the problems and choses to ignore/protect the refs rather than address the problems straight up. Stern knows that if these issues get leaked to the press, the integrity of the whole game is at stake (look at baseball steriod problems). It's linda like a Richard Nixon scenario. It's not that Stern is directly involved in the "crime" but he may have direct/indirect knowledge and choses to ignore/coverup. I doubt it ...but I wouldn't be surprised.
I don't know what your concept of very little money, but The guy made $265K last year. That is my idea of a pretty good living for running up down a court blowing a whistle.
Comparatively speaking, in the NBA that's peanuts. And..when you're talking scales of orders of magnitude in gambling money...yeah I could see an official taking bribes.
If stern were in on it, there would be no way the spurs would have made it to the nba finals last year. why would the do it RATINGS...everyone knows that the suns would have the rating sky rocket rather than another boring spurs final.
