Tim Donaghy on 60 Minutes

He's not revealing anything different than has been out there for the past two years. And I know you've been upset about the lack of coverage the whole time, Mizzou, but at this point he's just repeating the same things and is actually making claims that aren't as controversial as he previously did. What more should ESPN be doing? What's the proper amount of coverage and when can we stop being outraged? Should I still be outraged that they didn't cover the Gangelhoff scandal enough at the University of Minnesota? What's the statute of limitations when basically no new info is coming out?

And they are writing about. Their most prolific NBA writer, Henry Abbott, has a story today.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4722989

Refs carry grudges. Which they do in every sport. Stop the presses (do we still have presses?).

Plus, Donaghy isn't always the man of truth so many want him to be.

 

I have no reason to think that Donaghy is lying. I know the NBA would love for me to scoff at every word he says, but there is no way he was alone. He just so happened to get caught once the mob got involved.

He IS the NBA's Canseco. I can't wait to read his book.

 

Didn't see the piece, unfortunately. Did he indicate any concern for his personal survival?

 

He certainly did. He even had his knee whacked in the joint. The Mafia went after him to bet for them (that what he got $2K a winning bet for; I suspect he didn't bet as much on his own) by threatening his family.

The FBI told him they have an eye on some guys who might have it in for him, and they'd keep him in the loop. He says he believes them. I'm not sure he should.

 

I believe Donaghy is legitimately scared, and I do think he regrets losing his career and family over this. But I also think he'd do it all again; he'd just work harder to make sure he wasn't caught.

 

To me, Donaghy's claims are too perfect. He knows that even casual NBA fans assume something fishy is going on and he confirms every single ancedote that fans believe. Has anyone brought up a fishy NBA officiating theory that he didn't immediately validate? Just once, I want to hear him say, "That one was on the up and up. Guy just made a bad call." And if the True Hoops stats are correct, Donaghy is either a liar, a shitty gambler or both.

 

The guy has $100,000+ in gambling debts, he is working with the mob, and yet he doesn't impact the outcomes of games he bet on? Even though, according to him, the mob THREATENED his family after he lost money on the Spurs game where he kicked out Poppovich? Seems like that would teach him to not lose games he's reffing.

Like the statistical breakdown proved, if he was only betting on a particular ref hating Iverson or a particular ref wanting to keep scores close, he would have lost 70 percent of the time. Instead he won "70 to 80" percent of his bets.

The guy is self-admitted gambling addict. He is in debt. He has an avenue in which he can DIRECTLY affect the outcome of his wagers (how many gambling addicts would kill a family member for that kind of power?), yet he, for whatever reason, decided to just ref those games clean?
For some strange reason, I don't get the impression that integrity was a very big deal in Donaghy's life. So I'm not buying that ridiculous bullshit.

 

When ESPN doesn't ignore the story, it buries it. There's a definite sense of "Let's do the absolute minimum." here. Meanwhile 60 Minutes and Real Sports have done a pretty good job. I'm a little surprised SI has done so little with it.

 

I don't disagree with you, but then why does the FBI appear to believe him, and why wouldn't 60 Minutes have done their homework and said to him, "Mr. Donaghy, based on what you've told us, our research shows you would have lost more than 50% of your bets rather than won 70%."

Also, I haven't followed this story too closely. Does anyone know if he was betting the line, or betting the over/under, or both?

I suppose that you could make an argument (at least in your own mind) that based on how tightly you reffed a game, you could affect the final score (ie. the over/under) but not necessarily the outcome of the game.

 

According to Real Sports, he hit about 70-75 percent in games where he was officiating, but they said he wasn't that great at picking games he wasn't working.

 

That's true. But of the four major sports (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), the the officiating in the NBA by far, by the widest of margins, seems to be the most suspect when it comes to consistently protecting superstars with phantom calls, protecting certain teams and punishing specific teams and players with unwarrented calls.

There's no question in my rational mind that the LA lakers/Sacramento Kings playoff game several years ago that Donaghy has alluded to absolutely was fixed.