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If Ref's Telling Truth, NBA's In Deep Trouble

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2008

Updated: 06/13/2008 12:23 am

Tim Donaghy is an admitted felon who disgraced himself and the game he supposedly loves. No doubt about any of that. It still doesn't mean he was lying when he told the feds he wasn't the only crooked official in the National Basketball Association.

So we listen to Commissioner David Stern shout to the heavens that Donaghy is willing to say anything to shave a few years off his upcoming long-term lease on a cell at a federal prison. We hear Donaghy dismissed as a loner, a loser, a criminal, and someone whose lips would catch on fire if he spoke the truth.

They said the same things about Jose Canseco when he said the steroid problem in baseball was bigger than anyone knew. They said the same things about Ron Peters, the gambler who gave details in the case that drove Pete Rose from baseball. They were dismissed as criminals who couldn't be trusted.

Just like they're saying about Donaghy. We know why, too.

According to court papers released earlier this week, Donaghy, who is from Bradenton, told investigators six other officials manipulated the outcome of at least four other NBA games. Two of those were playoff games.

I can't conceive of a more damaging thing for a commissioner to face. It's one thing for Donaghy to act as a "rogue official," as Stern has tried to paint him. It's a disaster, though, if this is as far-reaching as Donaghy claims.

"If David Stern believes Tim Donaghy is not telling the truth, he should release in its entirety the results of the NBA's internal investigation," Donaghy's lawyer, Tampa-based John Lauro, told The Tampa Tribune on Thursday.

"However, we are not going to be intimidated by David Stern, the NBA, or anyone else. The full truth will be known."

It will be known soon. The truth won't set Tim Donaghy free, but it might give him some cellmates.

Cooperating With Feds

Donaghy will be sentenced July 14 after pleading guilty last summer to felony counts of gambling and money laundering. He passed along inside information to gamblers and didn't hesitate to make sure his bets were covered with a few well-timed whistles during games he worked.

He could face 25 years in the slammer, but he has been cooperating with federal investigators who want to know just how deep gamblers have their hooks in the NBA.

He has been telling them.

Stern immediately attacked Donaghy's credibility, but that's what you'd expect him to do. Strip away the rhetoric, though.

The very last thing Donaghy should do is fabricate stories to save his skin.

If the feds find he is lying, it would go badly for him at sentencing time. He has been singing to them for almost a year, too, so it's not like his charges are news to the government. They've been investigated, and both the FBI and Department of Justice believe there could be merit to them.

That's bad.

The problems for the NBA go deeper than even that, though.

It's Everywhere

If Donaghy is proven correct and there are other crooked whistle-blowers, everybody loses. Every call becomes suspect. Your team can play badly. The official can be incompetent. That's the human element to sports. But if people think the fix is in, it's all over.

Remember the non-foul call when San Antonio's Brent Barry was jostled by Derek Fisher of the Lakers while trying to launch a game-winning 3-pointer in the Western Conference finals?

The lack of a whistle there helped turn that series completely in the Lakers' favor and put them in the NBA Finals against the Celtics - just the matchup everyone wanted to see. Couldn't you hear the whispers?

People already believe officials make up their own rules to suit the situation (ever seen traveling called in the final minute of a tight game, even when LeBron James takes 12 steps to the basket?). If they start to believe those rules include manipulating the point spread, it's catastrophic for a league that has had gambling issues before.

Michael Jordan had a well-known fondness for casinos, even while he was a player. Charles Barkley just had to pay $400,000 to a Vegas casino to settle a debt. Those two were never suspected of anything like what Donaghy has admitted, but it is a fact that gambling and the NBA are on a first-name basis.

Who knows where it stops?

That's really what Donaghy is saying, isn't it now? The answer could bring a league to its knees.

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