Ex-NBA Ref Donaghy Sentenced To 15 Months In Prison

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 02:51:37 PM EST
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The game fixing ex-NBA ref Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months today in federal court in Brooklyn:

Tim Donaghy, the former N.B.A. referee who admitted to betting on games he officiated, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 months in prison. The sentence delivered by Judge Carol Amon of the United States District Court in Brooklyn was significantly shorter than the 24 to 30 months suggested by federal guidelines. Judge Amon said she wanted to recognize Donaghy’s cooperation, which led to the guilty pleas of two co-defendants, James Battista and Thomas Martino.

. . . “Mr. Donaghy was a central figure in the scheme, and without him, there would have been no scheme,” Judge Amon said. But, she added, “The defendant deserves to receive a benefit for his cooperation, and there is no doubt in this case that he provided substantial cooperation and he should receive a benefit.”

About that cooperation . . .

Lauro argued that Donaghy should be given the most lenient term because he had told federal prosecutors of misconduct by other league officials. . . . But N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern vehemently denied the accusations and said Donaghy had fabricated them in the hopes of avoiding prison time. And in July, federal prosecutors appeared to back up Stern and said much of the information Donaghy provided proved to be unsubstantiated, aside from information about his co-defendants.

“This is a story that is yet to be told,” Lauro said after the sentencing. He was referring to the information provided by Donaghy about the conduct of N.B.A. officials and referees. “All the facts didn’t come at this proceeding, but someday they will.”

I am anxious to see if more shoes drop.

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Ex-NBA Ref Donaghy Sentenced To 15 Months In Prison | 13 comments (13 topical)

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The officiating in that game... (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by OrangeFur on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 04:11:47 PM EST

... was surreal. In some ways, it'd be better to know that the game was fixed, rather than that seasoned NBA officials could do such a bad job in good faith.

Even in the best of times, though, there's a swirl of doubt around NBA officiating. Everybody "knows" that stars won't foul out on their home floors, etc. The NBA needs to do something to clean this up.

The problem with that... (none / 0) (#10)
by MileHi Hawkeye on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 06:59:23 PM EST

...is that on every single play, someone is fouling someone. It is a physical game. If you start calling all the fouls, the game slows down and gets really boring.

Certainly, there are some things they need to clean-up (like the constant palming/traveling), but they simply can't call everything.


: I'm a Nuggets fan... (none / 0) (#13)
by MileHi Hawkeye on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 10:07:19 PM EST

...so I know from bad calls.
But think about it--surely the league office crunched every marketing/revenue number forwards and back. No doubt it was in their financial/marketing benefit to have the Lakers win that series.
Boston losing to NJ was a big blow, and the prospect of a NJ/Sac. Finals match-up probably wasn't they had in mind.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the outcome of that game was predetermined long before the players came out for warm-ups.
That's my little conspiracy theory...

Maybe we will see.... (none / 0) (#1)
by kdog on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 03:12:36 PM EST

David Stern in a stop snitching t-shirt...though that may violate the NBA dress code:)

Donaghy is the scapegoat (none / 0) (#3)
by Jim J on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 03:20:39 PM EST

Eager for public acceptance of a "rogue official" scenario, Stern essentially offered a no mas on Donaghy so the feds would stop with him and not look any further.

Anyone who has watched the NBA knows the crooked referee problem goes much deeper than Donaghy. Personally I think the mob is pretty deep into the league's business.

BTW, did you know that something like five current NBA refs are all graduates of the same little Catholic high school in Philly? The blatant cronyism is almost charming in a throwback, Goodfellas kind of way.

Beyond the Game 6 allegations, (none / 0) (#4)
by scribe on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 03:23:30 PM EST

a couple weeks ago it came out that Donaghy and another ref had a lot of phone calls inter sese right before game times when the other ref was calling a game, and the number and time of these calls seemed to pretty closely coordinate to calls to Donaghy's gambling buddies.

Also, a Vegas pro looked at a lot of games in which "the line" "moved" and found that the big money that moved the line (by coming in late) won 7/7 times it happened. That, there's about a 1/100 chance of happening.

I'm sure the NBA wants this over, but I don't know that it truly is.

I thought the same.... (none / 0) (#5)
by kdog on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 03:24:36 PM EST

when the story first broke...that the NBA could well be finished.

But the stench didn't seem to hurt the league this season. Baseball survived the Black Sox, the NBA will survive this. I don't think anything could ever be definitively proven about Lakers vs. Kings being fixed...if Donaghy had come forward before he got in trouble he'd have credibility...now he's just a rat looking for a deal, even if he is telling the truth no one will believe him.

The NBA... (none / 0) (#6)
by Jerrymcl89 on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 03:31:42 PM EST

... moreso than the other leagues, has always suffered from a degree of perceived lack of integrity, between the rather arbitrary nature of calls that can routinely go either way, the obvious star system favoring the Jordans and LeBrons of the world, and its relentless emphasis on marketing. Donaghy was the first smoking gun, but I don't think anyone really thinks he's the only one.

I thought BTD didn't do criminal law. (none / 0) (#8)
by oculus on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 04:49:37 PM EST

This is basketball law (none / 0) (#11)
by magster on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 08:32:08 PM EST

big difference


: Politics (none / 0) (#14)
by squeaky on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 10:24:14 PM EST

From my perspective, IANAL, this scandal is more similar to politics than criminal law.

frankly, (none / 0) (#9)
by cpinva on Tue Jul 29, 2008 at 04:58:35 PM EST

other than the obvious deleterious effect it has on the game (which i have no particular interest in), i'm not sure it's important enough to waste a lot of valuable time on.

"fixing" games? (none / 0) (#15)
by txpublicdefender on Wed Jul 30, 2008 at 10:02:53 AM EST

For what it's worth, I don't think there was any proof that Donaghy actually fixed games. The allegation was that he used his inside information of which officials would be officiating particular games to place bets on those games and that he provided that inside information to others who similarly used that information to bet on games. I don't believe it was alleged or proven that he personally called games in such a way as to benefit others betting on those games.

Maybe it's splitting hairs, but for me, it is different.