July 12 is the court date. That is when the truth comes and could possible uncover this whole situation. The fact that the feds are investigating Dick puts more truth to Tim The Don's claims.
The league never tells him what to do, no tape, no nothing. But he is a company man, he does it for the benefit of the NBA, he knows what the boss wants. The boss is very happy with him, and that's why he was a referee for so many games. My prediction, the Fed won't find anything wrong with Bavetta, there is no evidence.
I'm assuming this isn't involving a jury, but I just had this image of refs and Stern being tried in a court of law and the jury is filled w/ 12 NBA fans wearing jerseys. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
1. Careful what you wish for. The Plane Scandal in the 90s only dropped the level of officiating, and if a big clear out happens again, it'll only get worse. 2. I don't think the game itself is fixed, though I do believe the league has and does push for soft/homer officiating here and there to extend a series (Lakers-Kings '02, Spurs-Suns '06 and '07, etc). 3. I think the MUCH bigger issue is that the NBA has completely lost its way in how the game is called. Fundamental rules should be ironclad (TRAVELING), any one official should call the game the same as any other, and the calls should be the same no matter who's home and who's away. The League fails MISERABLY in all 3 categories. It's very sad that: -Any of us can name and breakdown the tendencies of no less than a dozen refs (there's Danny Crawford...Yao's getting jobbed tonight; Violet Palmer? Oh GOD; Jack Nies - someone's gettting T'ed up tonight). THIS IS A BAD THING. -The League worked so hard re-writing the rule book to make sure high-flying dunkers could flourish that they've bastardized the game. For example, cracking down on hand contact is fine. Disallowing charges inside the dotted line is okay. But WHY is it an automatic blocking foul if you TAKE a charge at the dotted line? Dwyane Wade won the championship for the Heat because the refs phantom-called him to NBA Finals records for attempted free throws. And we wonder why international teams whip up us so bad. -The refs allow so much to go uncalled that fundamental calls only happen when the league sends a memo. And when they do, it goes night to day. Palming, moving screens, etc. It's damning that this goes on. God help them when they send a memo about traveling on the way to the basket. Dick Bavetta is one of the worst at taking liberal interpretations on How To Call The Game The NBA Way. I don't think he's crooked at all, I think he just fully drinks the league office kool-aid. He let Ewing hopscotch into the lane, he let Jordan travel, palm, and use his off-arm, and now he protects the big stars and home teams. Stern has to put an end to this, and he's resisted for years. He's also got an issue in that the refs have him by the balls. He can't my way/highway with them and he knows it. There are no reasonable replacements. Evan
From the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/sports/basketball/12refs.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=sports
What you wrote here is the same as accusing that the league is fixing games. They are fixing it in a more systematic way by changing the rules constantly to favor the teams they want to see in the playoffs. If they can do it in a systematic way, why can't they do it for each game? Well, it is too costly if they get caught; second, they don't need to do that because the system already favors the teams or players they want. however, it does not prevent them from doing it occasionally, like the 02 Kings-Lakers game 6 by sending company men to do the work. By the way, there is no evidence though as company men are called company men because they know what the boss wants without being told so.
Thread title is wrong, dead wrong, you are way misinterpreting this. According Donaghy's letter, He made his allegations about other officials last July/August around the time he was arrested and was negotiating his plea. As a consequence, sometime in the following months, the FBI questioned other officials as to follow up on the validity of those charges. Thus far, there is no evidence that they have opened up an investigation of Bavetta (or Hollins or anybody). That DOES NOT mean that Bavetta is the subject of an FBI investigation.
That's exaclthy what the article said - the thread title is misleading, there is no evidence put forward that they are doing any more investigation or simply just chasing down Donaghy's leads.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3439554 Federal agents asking questions about Bavetta By Chris Sheridan ESPN.com (Archive) Updated: June 12, 2008, 6:35 PM ET LOS ANGELES -- Two former NBA referees told ESPN on Thursday that federal investigators had questioned them about referee Dick Bavetta while conducting their probe into Tim Donaghy. Former referee Hue Hollins said Thursday on ESPN's Outside The Lines that federal investigators "questioned me about Dick Bavetta more than they did about Tim Donaghy." "They wanted to know what I knew about Dick Bavetta in terms of holding calls, making sure this team wins, that team wins. I said 'I never heard of that, and I didn't know anything about it,' " Hollins said. "When they called to interview me, I was again caught by surprise they asked so many questions about Bavetta. I didn't know where they were going with that." Another ex-referee, who spoke to ESPN.com on the condition he not be identified, said federal investigators asked him about specific games that Bavetta refereed and whether he had noticed anything peculiar about Bavetta's actions. What They're Saying Former referee Mike Mathis told ESPN.com he had been questioned by the FBI but was not asked about Bavetta. Also, ex-referee Blaine Reichelt said he had not been contacted by any law enforcement authorities, and ex-referee Ted Bernhardt said he had only been questioned by NBA security officials. A request by ESPN.com to interview Bavetta was denied Thursday by the NBA, as was a request to view the officials' postgame report from Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals -- a game Donaghy has alleged was refereed unfairly to ensure the Lakers and Kings would meet in a Game 7. Bavetta, Bob Delaney and Bernhardt were the three referees who worked that game, and Delaney told ESPN on Wednesday he has never been contacted by NBA or federal investigators concerning Donaghy's allegation that two referees intended to assure that series went seven games. Bernhardt, reached Thursday by ESPN.com, recalled the aftermath of Game 6 in 2002. "I only talked to [former supervisor of officials] Ed Rush after the game, and I said I wasn't happy about it. He asked why, and I said I didn't feel we were very good." The Game In Question Shaquille O'Neal scored 41 points and pulled down 17 rebounds as the Lakers forced a Game 7 in the 2002 Western Conference finals. Recap "But I stand by my calls in that game. I was right on," Bernhardt said. "I believe in Dick Bavetta, and I believe in Bob Delaney, and I believe in the NBA for that matter. I'm also afraid that if Tim Donaghy is proven wrong, he's going to end up having to serve more time. I feel sorry for his kids. It's just a terrible situation all around." NBA commissioner David Stern was asked Tuesday night by ESPN.com whether he was aware of any ongoing investigations of other referees. His response: "I'm going to repeat the question because I want everyone to hear it: Are we aware of any open investigations by the government? Only possibly of Mr. Donaghy, nothing else." Bavetta officiated Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Boston, and it is unknown whether he is scheduled to work any more games this postseason. The NBA does not release its referee assignments until the morning of a game day. During a lengthy interview with ESPN.com early in 2006, Bavetta bristled at a question that cited detractors' criticisms of him, including his officiating in Game 6 of the Lakers-Kings series, and he declined to answer on the record. Hollins told The New York Times, in a story published Thursday, that investigators asked if he ever noticed that Bavetta "was making sure that the home team would win, and I told them I had no idea because I didn't work with him a lot." Lemell McMorris, president of the referee's union, declined comment, and FBI spokesman Steve Kodak said the U.S. Justice Department never comments regarding any kind of ongoing investigation. Chris Sheridan is an ESPN.com NBA Insider.
you made the mistake of reading the actual text of the article, the completely wrong way to go. had you read between the lines, you would have realized the FBI was saying everything tim donaghy is saying is true and there is definitely a league-wide conspiracy to fix games.
Actually the problem wasn't the threadstarter, it was the way the blog post that he linked to referrred to the Times article where this news surfaced. The FBI may in fact be investigating Bavetta - but the revelation today was that they had back-checked Donaghy's allegations which were made last summer, as one would expect them to. The thread title/blog post title implies that they just opened one up and he's a current target - which may very well be the case, but it's unclear.
I am a confidently suspicious man and have thundered on just such issues and I agree with you. However, they are innocent until proven guilty.
Actually Crawford was mentioned as one of the factions against Bavetta and against "home court" crap.
