Monday, July 23, 2007

Did Tim Donaghy and crew fixed game 3 of Suns-Spurs?


By now everyone has heard of the NBA referee gambling scandal involving fellow referee Tim Donaghy. Here is the video making the rounds online. I've seen this referenced on Bill Simmons's column today (espn.com) and on si.com.

A couple of things about the video:

1. The video was put together by a Suns fan so it has that bias. Simmons's column on espn.com stated quite frankly that the game was badly officiated for both teams.

2. Donaghy is not the only ref making the bad calls although he is making his fair share.

3. Watching the video definitely implies that Donaghy was manipulating the game in favor of the Spurs...and that might have happened...but it also looks like he might have been allegedly manipulating the score for the over/under (also referenced by Simmons).

4. But it is also true that Armare Stoudamire was basically taken out of the game because of foul trouble--something that a referee could easily manipulate.

The bottom line is that this is (almost) worse case scenario for the NBA. Worse case scenario would be if a player(s) would be involved. I'm not saying that the video is definitive proof of Donaghy putting the fix on but the cloud of suspicion is growing day by day. For a league that already--fairly or not--has the perception of having elements of its league fixed...this is--on the doomsday clock--like 11:55. When the integrity of the league is in question than one has a big problem.

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