Ex-referee Tim Donaghy blows whistle on NBA dirty secrets

I always hated the Bulls, Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan...

But honestly? I think their first 5 titles were legit. Jordan was a marketing dream who won, and Stern (or more precisely Bavetta) just helped him cement his legacy a little in game 6 in 1998: Eisley's 3 pointer doesn't count; Ron Harper's does; ballgame.

After Jordan left, Stern didn't have another marketing dream. So he started more and more with the fixes, getting as many desirable outcomes as possible.

Larry Johnson's last-second 4-point play. Shaq body-blocking Steve Smith out-of-bounds in the waning seconds of game 7 of the WCF. And the most egregious of all: game 6 handed to the Lakers on a silver platter. Why? Big-market teams, and an effort to CREATE the "next Jordan" (*cough* KOBE *cough*).



Honestly, I don't think the fixing happens all the time. I think almost all regular season games are legit, and even most of the playoff games. But it's there when it matters. The refs can't truly control the game, they can only tilt the field, usually to where we can't really see it. Kings-Lakers was their big-screw up, because it's the one time that it was so bad, almost everyone could see it.

 

this digusts me...

but hey stern... imagine how much money you would make if yao ming won the nba finals??? think of all the championship merchandise you can sell in china!!!

go rockets!

 

LOL. I'm right with y'all. I can still remember all the accusations of "whiners" and "crybabies" and "conspiracy nuts" directed at anyone who dared question that game. As moes said, anyone with even a shred of objectivity could see that from a mile away.

 

i agree with every word you said. what i was applying, was the bulls winning the 1st pick. you know how they don't show you the actualy lottery anymore. they do the lottery in the back room, then the guy with a brief case comes in and just shows everyone the top 3 picks...

if this is true, it'll help the teams like us, and other teams that aren't very good for marketing. i'm pretty sure if they fixed somethings for us, we would have helped them big time with our size and china...

he fines people for not wearing suits... fixing games is giving you a worse image than a bunch of basketball players wearing basketball shorts...

 

Dude, I gotta find that thread now! I specifically remember you and me, man. We were two of the most vocal guys about this when it was happening.

 

No wonder Stern gave the other refs caught at casinos a pass last year - he didn't want a whole bunch of these guys telling the same story to the FBI.

One can only hope that this may lead to a cleanup and some actual basketball being played fairly. It can only help the Rockets.

 

Man, my memory must suck. Or maybe everyone here is just really good. I don't remember this game 6. I know I watched it though, I remember watching all the playoff games around this time period intently w/ my father.

Is there by any chance somewhere to watch it online?

 

the sad thing is this story is much bigger than steroids in baseball or spygate in the NFL but is gonna get about 1/1000 of the coverage.

Everyone is just gonna look away and say, "but that was all in the past" and move on like it was no big deal.

 

wonder what jvg will have to say during the game tonight

 

Here we go... a bunch of threads from back when it was happening, with references of one kind or another to game 6 of Lakers-Kings.


Dick Bavetta for MVP
Neat article about the officiating
OMG, I see a lot of people complaining about officiating . . .
The new Choke City: Sacramento
Prediction: How many points will the Lakers win by tonight?
Regardless of the outcome...

 

I hope Stern gets his image so damaged that he is forced to resign. Even though I hope it's not true.

 

I remember being incredibly angry about this game. It honestly was a disgustingly officiated game. Can anyone post a torrent link to this game? I'd like to rewatch it just to refresh my memory on it.

 

anyone remember the ref asking the scorers table how many fouls shaq has?

there was a public out roar about how that should never matter to an official.

 

while game 6 was obviously not good and one of the more egregiously lopsided officiating efforts in any sport in any game, what can they really do about the yao thing? i mean aren't officials constantly given points of emphasis. whether it's a season-long directive like no hand-checking, or a team sending in tape to get something focused on, or a complaint going out to focus on yao's screens, isn't this a common thing? i mean if they said make sure yao fouls out on moving screens, that would be one thing, but just focusing on it doesn't seem that out of whack with standard operating procedure. but maybe they don't do that very often.

as for jvg he brought up the yao thing with no evidence and i think he was basically given the choice of giving up his source, saying he lied, or getting punished big time. his problem was telling who said it, which he was offered the chance to do, would probably hurt him worse (who is going to give him calls then?) than just taking his fine and saying he was mistaken.

as for being lax on technicals and ejections of star players? uhh, duh. that's been going on for as long as anyone can remember. it's not like kendrick perkins picking up a tech easier than kevin garnett is something new. or something the fans don't want.

 

There was so much shady **** going on during that series in 05 against the Mavs, I don't doubt Donaghy had a hand in that outcome.

Stern is a piece of **** and I hope he gets sued by JVG and loses the commisioner spot.

REMEMBER THE FINLEY OUT OF BOUNDS?

 

NBA is very shrewd in altering games

NBA is very shrewd in altering games. Just send the "company referees" to the games they want to alter, giving them a signal without even saying a word. Those are implicit collusion, extremely difficult to find evidence with.

 

He's going to be sentenced, he's already pleaded guilty so he has nothing to lose really. Of course not all that much to gain from this revelation either, so who knows.

 

Jon Barry might say somthing as well.

 

I think all the evidence is kinda impossible to deny at this point. The only thing Stern can hope for is that he can pass it off as something his underlings did, rather than something that he himself did.






Again, Bavetta should be shot. He's been fixing games for years and years and years.

Oh, AND A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE IDIOTS WHO BASHED JOEY CRAWFORD.

Remember when it looked like Crawford was probably gonna be gone for good not so long ago, eh? Well, he took a TOTALLY UNSOLICITED SHOT SPECIFICALLY AT BAVETTA WHICH I REFERENCED IN THIS POST:
Crawford also blasted fellow referee Dick Bavetta in the e-mail obtained by ESPN.com, hinting at divisions among referees between those who do and don't support Bavetta and writing that maybe Bavetta will wind up as the crew chief in Game 7 of the NBA (Finals) "which is a travesty in itself you even being in the finals."
Source: ESPN Daily Dime


Anyone still think Joey Crawford is a horrible official? Well if you are, wake up, because he just proved to be the most vocal opponent of the biggest game-fixer in NBA history.

 

OK but his incident with Duncan was by far the most obvious example of a referee letting his personal feelings impact his calling of a game that I've ever seen.