Tim Donaghy (60 Minutes)

I said it's not beloved like Baseball. Never said white folks don't like hoops. If you want to rank the top 3 sports by popularity, the NBA would be behind MLB and NFL. Also, you're comparing Players in baseball taking steroids, to a referee placing bets on NBA games. Fans watch games to see players, not refs. If it was a NBA player that got busted for betting and playing bad on purpose to throw games, it'd be talked about much more.

 

I'd like to see more use of replay in basketball - but have it a lot more "on the fly" rather than the protracted, absurd process that NFL & NCAA use.

 

^^^
I don't have problems with discretional stuff.
But the intentional stuff Donaghy alluded to bothered me a lot, like openly discussing the need to teach AI a lesson and then the calls went away from AI in real games. That's abuse of power. In any sports, that sort of behavior should warrant an investigation at least. Yet, it seems it's the culture within NBA at the time that straightening out a player was an ok thing to do. I am not aware any other league shares the same culture.

 

I don't have problems with discretional stuff.
But the intentional stuff Donaghy alluded to bothered me a lot, like openly discussing the need to teach AI a lesson and then the calls went away from AI in real games. That's abuse of power. In any sports, that sort of behavior should warrant an investigation at least. Yet, it seems it's the culture within NBA at the time that straightening out a player was an ok thing to do. I am not aware any other league shares the same culture.

 

I don't know how that would work, personally; just like I don't know how you can broadly reduce the subjective nature of basketball fouls. Obviously, certain specific things are fixable, but (for example) it's damn near impossible to make charge vs block water-tight.

For sure, though, cleaning house of all the refs is the only rational starting point.

 

It is ridiculous how people are buying into this guy's claims. This guy just lost a six figure job, ruining his reputation and life. do you think he might want to try and sell a book or two.

I don't get why people want it to be true that the NBA was fixed. Can anyone actually claim that over the past decade, the best team more often than not has come out on top. Yes, it was bad what happened to Sacramento in 02 in that game six. Other than that, its just a hard game to call. Its a non contact sport with contact on every play. its damn near impossible to ref guys like Shaq and Yao fairly because they're so big you really can't tell when they are being fouled. these guys are arguably the best most skilled athletes in pro sports moving at a fast rate of speed with calls that are based on an inch here or there. I think people should really relax.

 

I'm just pissed off that they showed the AI game. Naturally they had to use a clip of Hastings complaining about the officials. Instead of realizing that even a blind dog finds a squirrel sometimes, he'll think that it justifies the ridiculous whining he does EVERY BLOODY GAME.

 

It is so obvious. NBA is fixed. Rasheed said it the best - "NBA is like the WWF"
Stern = Vince McManhon

 

Sure, but for some stuff (ball out of bounds, maybe traveling etc) the ref could simply look out at the video screen overhead. I mean it's easier than the silly theater of the make-up call.

 

So now stern controls the media

you guys really need to step back from the keyboard and read what you're typing. and i'm not trying to be a jerk. its one thing for all these guys who post adelman needs to lose his job everytime the rockets lose to buy into this stuff, but when i see guys like you and rham really buy into this stuff, i just don't get it.

this guy just ruined his life, is trying to sell a book, and you think the media should take him at face value.

 

Commissioner Stern, is that you?

Um, you do actually WATCH the games, right?

Generally the best team wins it all. But there's a lot of games and a lot of room to maneuver elsewhere.

As far as that "impossible to ref" guys like Shaq and Yao? Difficult, maybe, but Yao is battered and hammered out there. We can always say "be more aggressive" and "play like a man" but as soon as he does, HE gets whistled.

 

Good point. Couple of things I'd like to see:

1) Get rid of the idiotic blocking circle and the idea that a defensive player must be "set in stone". If the offensive player initiates contact, call a charge. Else, call a block.
2) Flopping should be a flagrant 1.
3) For god's sake call the freeking post-play like the rules say you should. Two hands in the back is a freeking foul - how easy is this?. Pushing the offensive player out of position is a foul. etc.
4) Call traveling. Every time. Call it call it call it.

 

the stupidity of the people saying the refs are biased against Yao is twofold.

First of all, Yao has to be the nicest, most standup guy in the damn league, why would anyone have a personal bias against him

second, there is not a guy with more fans.

again, where is your logic?

 

Pgabriel, I would give you rep if I could.

Sure I do. And while there have been problems with officiating here and there, it is an incredibly difficult job (as others have replied, even with replay, it's difficult to tell at times what's a charge or block and I don't want the game stopping every 5 seconds for the refs to determine this or that) and to claim that the whole thing is fixed on the word of a convict is frankly complete BS.

And replace them with what? The replacement refs that called about 80 fouls a game and made watching the thing impossible?

Because Stern and the refs are racist, apparently. Once again more unsubstantial claims used to pump this conspiracy theory junk.

 

Picture yourself as the ref, who like Yao as a person a lot. However, e.g. when a 6'2 guy drove into Yao and laid on the floor with anguish, by instinct you jus t see a 7'6 guy who has a enormous advantage under the basket against the little guy. You probably won't factor in that Yao's nice a guy at all.
Yao's size is the source of bias.There goes the idiom "Big men are tough to officiate."

 

I know that Mark Cuban did an extensive statistical study on the impact of officiating on game outcomes and determined that it was very significant. And now we have the anecdotal evidence of Donaghy winning bets at an 80% clip just by knowing who's officiating, who's the teams, and their biases.

I don't like to focus on refs when watching games, but honestly the evidence seems pretty damning.

 

so this guy claims that refs have a bias against players, his only proof is a game that he is calling against iverson that he has a bet on while claiming his bet doesn't affect his reffing? ummmkay

 

On the topic of Iverson: maybe this is the reason why he had such a hard time finding a suitor? They kept talking about the "Extra baggage" that comes along with Iverson, maybe this is known to be one of them?

 

Irritating, but totally expected. Stern's MO has always been, if it makes the league look bad, ignore and obfuscate if its the media....and threaten legal action against fans who put up videos that show stuff that makes the NBA look bad in any way. (fights, comments, etc)