Houston Chronicle - As minds throughout the NBA raced to recall details of the games Tim Donaghy officiated, to disputed calls and controversial moments, there were two Rockets games that immediately commanded attention. The Rockets' loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 17 and the win against the Orlando Magic on Feb. 25 stood out as games certain to draw the interest of investigators looking into whether Donaghy influenced the results of NBA games. Donaghy was assigned four Rockets games last season, but the game against the Suns in January has drawn attention because of the movement of the betting line and results. The Suns had been favored to win by 3 1/2 points the day before the game. They were favored by nine by game time (though the line might have moved so greatly because Tracy McGrady left the game the previous night with a sore back and did not play against the Suns). The Suns won by nine. "The big trend with him in particular is that the first 15 games last season he refereed where we saw line movement of at least 1 1/2 points were a perfect 15-of-15 for the big-money people betting," said Matty O'Shea, general manager of content at pregame.com and a handicapper. "The odds of that happening randomly are only 33,000-to-1
you might need a link from the chronicle per Clutch's rules. I don't know about anyone else...but the Suns got.... lalala *
Is that the game(suns) that both yao and tracy were missing?. i remember rafer had a career night in that game.
Really who cares at this point. Guy cheated its over. Rockets would not have gained anything significant had he not done this. Whatever.
I was referring to the Sun's playoff games against the Spurs where they got *'d or did I mean to say that I meant to refer to the refereeing of the game while I was reefering during it's playback on TIVO? crap...how do we spell "refer" and [referee] and (reefer)... and what punctuation do I use to parent-thize them? I'm so lost.
If these clown robbed there poor sons well that sux. considering i think without Kurt thomas there not gonna that good anymore. he was there sole interior defender. without him, the likes of awesome insider players like our yao and duncamn are gonna smash them even more.
Also how many times has he officiated in games that yao has been in the league. i allways thought yao got screwed over by the refs. maybe thins are starting to make sense.
Who cares? A official of the NBA fixed certain games. This is not a player we are talking about. This is a guy who is suppose to control the game from a high position. Whenever theres corruption up front, its a MAJOR deal, especially since it also involves the Mafia. It doesn't matter if the Rockets would have gained anything from those wins, the fact is, he still tried to change the outcome of the games. Just because the importance of these games were low, doesn't make it any better.
Was Donaghy involved in any playoff games. The refs I thought let the Spurs get away with a lot of holding and grabbing a couple of games.
One game that I suspect was fixed was at the beginning of the 2004 season, at home against the Timberwolves. Garnett hit a tough jumper with only a few seconds remaining, which I believe put the Wolves up by 1. During the inbounds on the Rockets end of the court, Jim Jackson was called for setting a moving screen and there went the ball game. Donaghy was working that game, and I believe he's the one that made the call. Not that it wasn't a moving screen, and not that I condone the swallowing of the whistle in the game's final minutes, but that's not something that you ever see called. Especially against Utah in the 1997 WCF
The Chronicle reported that the last game Donaghy worked this year was in the Suns/Spurs series, but he worked other playoff games before that.
Post links to the article when you post articles or parts of them. *EDIT* : Didn't see the transformer had posted one for you...
I can't believe the NBA doesn't have someone who's job it is to monitor betting line changes. The line changes abnormally on the day of a game, you check to see if there's a reason why -- an injury, etc. If there's no reason, you make a note. Compare any games that fall into that category and see if there's a common theme -- a ref, or a star player, maybe. I'd be willing to bet that somebody will be assigned this duty before next year.
The thing that is so devious and sneaky about this Donaghy case is he doesn't even need to 'fix' the result, ie wins or losses. He just needs to make sure the point spread is covered or not, or the over/under. That is a lot more subtle and only gambling types would notice. He doesn't even need to make bets himself, just have others do it for him and pay him later,ie mafia. I suspect he will rat out many others and be gone from the face of the earth under the witness protection program, or face being whacked by the mob!
You must be young. GRAND conspiracies involving betting and mob go together like beans and cornbread. But ahhhh, don't worry about it. roflmcwaffles says it's just one guy so we don't need to be bothered. Lets drop the investigation. And if the public at large loses confidence in NBA officiating ...no worries.
isn't he only being investigated for the 05-06 season and the 06-07 season? anything before that does not fir into the GRAND conspiracy theory
I hope that in light of Tim Donaghy's alleged betting on NBA Basketball games, the NBA would let the players and coaches criticize the officials without fining them all the time like they do now unless that criticizing gets too much out of control. I feel that it's possible that there could be other NBA referees betting on NBA games as well. Therefore, in light of that possibility, I feel that the players and coaches have a much bigger right to criticize the officials more than ever after games. The referees who choose to bet on NBA games are doing it because they think that they are bigger than the league, but that might even apply to the NBA referees who don't bet on the games as well. I would sure like see the video tape of the remarks Reggie Miller once made a few years ago about NBA referees after a game in which his team lost, and got fined perhaps the heaviest amout of money at that time for having said that the officiating of that one game is the worst he had ever seen out of all other levels he had played in (high school, college, and the NBA).
