Dude did you read Donaghy's comments about Nuñez?
I think personal ref's interests and vendettas are definitely possible. Guys like Allen Iverson, Ron Artest, Sheed are all easy and preferred targets because of their at ude.
This is why the NBA rotates refs so 1 single ref can't determine the outcome of a series.
But on a league-wide NBA basis, no I don't think that large of a conspiracy can possibly exist.
Anything to deflect from Sterns Laker love.....
Long before the Spurs won their second le or I moved to SA and became a Spurs fan, people were ing about the 'fix' for LA.
How soon we forget.
You know, I give a free pass to fans of teams like the Suns/Mavs who have never won a championship. They have a justifiable reason to believe in these conspiracty theories against their teams.
But Spurfan, of all fans, should know better than to believe in these conspiracy theories.
By supporting these conspiracy theories you are either cheapening your 4 "rigged" Championships or believe that the Spurs are the only team to ever honestly win 4 championships.
Super-boring star Tim Duncan and the small market Spurs are the poster boys for what Stern DOESN'T want to be in the Finals. Stern probably had nightmares and shivers at night in 99, 2003, 2005, 2007.
Last edited by Allanon; 10-30-2009 at 05:37 PM.
If you are a young military out of the academy and you spend 5 years behind the Steel Curtain in the 70s, will ill-defined duties, what kind of job are you holding EXACTLY?
Are you making friends, during that period, that could potentially help you later in your career, whatever that might be?
Maybe.
Do some of these friends happen to know that some of the NBA refs are less than adamant in their personal lives?
Maybe.
Can these infos be put to use in deciding some of the games? Key games, possibly?
Maybe.
Should the Spurs fans be wining about NBA being rigged (as it obviously is).
NO.
Why not? I'm a Spurs fan and I don't like the NBA to be rigged, even if it helps my team, I don't like it.
Only part of the excerpts are first hand observations. Many of them are second hand observations which amount to hearsay. The guy authoring the book can't personally testify to the truthfulness of what he's writing, and his character is in question anyway.
it doesnt have to be some organized, centralized conspiracy for refs to manipulate games. All it takes is a little incompetence, a little unprofessionalism and you can get big mistakes, nevermind the small ones that are absolutely inevitable. Add to that the possibility for interests and biases, a la donaghy... Some people are suggesting its impossible for games to be manipulated when tim donaghy is in jail precisely because he manipulated games. Is donaghy being wrongly imprisoned? Why didnt the NBA defend him? Donaghy's sheer existence is proof positive that manipulation happens and that the NBA doesnt do a good job monitoring its refs performances.
stern isnt rigging games in some underground control room from a bond film. but when he continues to employ an incompetent fool like stu jackson, he is paving the way for continued mistakes. when you practically have no pipeline of new refs recieving training (see offseason ref debacle), you are not doing a good job to ensure quality officiating. 90% of this problem is simple incompetence and lack of professionalism, and stern has to take some of the heat for not creating a structure that fosters accountability and transparency.
If this guy goes to self-publishing and sells from an offshore location where his money can be protected by bank privacy laws, I think he can make a lot of money because he can use the relatively new process known as 'print on demand", meaning he has no inventory but just sells by mail and prints up books when he has money in hand.
Since any legal action against him that would end up with a judgement is going to be a civil libel suit--not a criminal case---the Feds aren't going to go after his money in the Bahamas or Switzerlland.
You obviously weren't around for the turbulent days during and after the ABA/NBA war. There were bad feelings on the part of the NBA against the ABA because we broke into their little club.
Check out the series between SA and Washington a year or so after the merger and say there was no manipulation by the refs. Everyone knew the refs were not going to let an upstart from the NBA win.
And not one ABA team came closer than that until the Nineties. I believe there was a bias against the ABA teams. It was a frequent subject of newspaper articles back in the day. And the most frequent target of the criticisms was Brevetta.
well if the book is true and the refs went anti-suns cause of Sarver.....maybe he should start wining and dining the refs....send their wives gift baskets for christmas....send them on cruises....all anonymously of course.
Can’t buy his latest call
By Dan Shaughnessy
Globe Columnist
Tim Donaghy is back in the news. Serving time in federal prison, the former NBA official is once again trying to take down the NBA and its corps of referees.
The dirty zebra has written a book - which may or may not be published - and he’s again claiming that the games are not on the level. He’s naming names, and some of the stuff found its way to the Internet. The NBA has delivered Donaghy’s latest allegations to a former federal prosecutor who reviewed league officiating when Donaghy’s crimes first came to light.
There is probably some truth in Donaghy’s new charges. The ref rat claims stars get special treatment - not exactly a “stop the presses’’ bulletin.
It’s not hard to imagine refs playing parlor games regarding who might make the first call of the night. Maybe a guy did T-up Rasheed Wallace in order to make his fellow refs responsible for tipping the ball boys. Some refs don’t like some players. It’s only human.
But fixing games and gambling on games is another matter. Making sure a series goes seven games is corrupt. Helping the Celtics and Lakers at the expense of the Cavaliers and Spurs is consumer fraud. It’s criminal.
And I’m not buying it.
Donaghy is a crook and a rat. He’s also broke and back in prison. And he’s trying to make a buck. His claims got some traction yesterday on the local talk shows. The unsubstantiated charges make great Internet fodder. And I am writing about it because, well, people are talking about it.
But I simply refuse to believe that the games we watch are not on the level.
Call me naive. It won’t be the first time. Certainly those of us who bought into the Sosa-McGwire home run chase of 1998 were snookered. I never thought Pete Rose would have bet on baseball while he was managing the Reds. If I’d covered the 1919 World Series, I’d have probably written at great length about the White Sox choking and underperforming.
But tanking?
Say it ain’t so.
I went to the Garden last night to watch the Celtics and the Bulls. I kept my eyes on Tom Washington, Eric Lewis, and Zach Zarba. I saw nothing su ious. There are going to be bad calls, suspect calls. I just don’t think the refs are in the bag.
I talked with players, coaches, and ex-players, and naturally no one was buying into Donaghy’s premise. Not on the record, anyway. NBA players are not fools and only a fool would slander the men who make the calls that impact their livelihood.
“I just have faith that everybody is doing what they are supposed to do,’’ said Ray Allen. “The refs are not always perfect. There are a lot of judgment calls. That’s why we, as players, need to have good relationships with them. We try not to let the game get to a point where it’s in the referees’ hands.’’
I asked Allen if he ever felt an official “had it in for you?’’
“Yes,’’ he said quickly. “For sure. Sometimes we may be paranoid, you might think a guy doesn’t like you.’’
Danny Ainge had the same reaction to the question.
“I felt Earl Strom had it in for me when I played,’’ said Ainge. “One time I went up to him and asked him how much longer I was going to have to pay for something I’d done and he looked at me like he didn’t know what I was talking about.’’
We don’t need Donaghy going all Canseco on us to know that stuff happens. In 2007, veteran official Joe Crawford was suspended by the NBA after ejecting Tim Duncan. It was not the first time Crawford was slapped by his bosses. Back in the 1980s, Celtics coach Bill Fitch was under the impression that Crawford had been punished for making too many calls against a team that failed to provide him with tickets for a game. Any time thereafter, when Fitch felt Crawford was foiling the Celtics at the Garden, Fitch would say, “What’s the matter, Joe? Didn’t you get your tickets tonight?’’
None of it is OK. Anything less than total impartiality is unacceptable, and all leagues need to be vigilant.
But game-fixing? Series-fixing? I don’t think so. Too many people would have to be in on it. It would get out.
Bettors and fans who love teams more than their own families inevitably see demons. But I’ve never understood how any fan could make an emotional (or financial) investment in games that are fixed.
You can’t go to the Garden and write a story about officials without checking with Tommy Heinsohn. Part of the NBA since 1956, Tommy has said more about referees than anyone in Greater Boston. He’s battled the whistles from the court, the bench, and the broadcast booth. Did he ever think the games were fixed?
“No,’’ said Heinsohn. “Sometimes it’s subjective. You wonder what a guy thinks of you if he says you’re nothing but a showboat. But I never believed it wasn’t on the level.’’
“I’m not going to believe what a criminal says,’’ said Doc Rivers. “No doubt, there are times we are not happy. It’s a human game, just like those baseball games with the umpires last night. There’s always going to be stuff like that.’’
“I read the excerpts [from Donaghy’s book],’’ said Ainge. “You have to consider the source. It’s easy to write and say things and blow it out of proportion. I just played in too many big games to believe all that. I believe they’re doing the best they can and that the players decide the outcome.’’
Players decide the outcome. If you don’t believe that, why bother watching the games?
I told everyone the NBA was rigged.
vindicated.
It always comes down to "why watch then"
with no real answers, like saying their is a trinity because there is,
again with no real proof.
this dude just doesn't want to believe he has been duped for so many years.
What a GREAT cover story. Every good conspiracy needs plausible denial.
But Spurfan, of all fans, should know better than to believe in these conspiracy theories.
By supporting these conspiracy theories you are either cheapening your 4 "rigged" Championships or believe that the Spurs are the only team to ever honestly win 4 championships.
Super-boring star Tim Duncan and the small market Spurs are the poster boys for what Stern DOESN'T want to be in the Finals. Stern probably had nightmares and shivers at night in 99, 2003, 2005, 2007.
Why post on a basketball website then?
What could be more exciting than watching Tim Duncan and the Spurs overcome a massive conspiracy? Nothing is better than when the good guys win.
Why is his character in question? Because Stern says so?
Donaghy provided credible information to fix games, and now he is providing credible info about how the games were fixed. Nothing he has ever said has been shown to be false, and it all rings true.
Gambling laws are uncons utional, anyway, Donaghy is fighting for our liberty.
PS - Stern is the person whose character is in question. He is just lying to make money, pure and simple. Stern does not provide specifics, Donaghy does. A common trait of liars is to provide only vague information.
One thing that I don't get about the conspiracy theory notion is that there are plenty of people who've been in the NBA's employ as officials and have been fired from those jobs or resigned on questionable terms.
Dee Kantner and Michael Henderson immediately come to mind -- and each left the league on terms that were relatively humiliating.
Ted Bernhardt is an even better example to me, given that he was among the league's very best officials -- he had to have been an elite official to work Game 6 of a conference finals and the ensuring NBA Finals. He left the league at the height of his career, not long after being vilified for making a foul call in an All-Star game that cost Michael Jordan a game-winner. If anyone is likely to have an axe to grind with the NBA, it's Bernhardt.
Less well-known examples exist, too, since the league essentially fires officials almost annually.
Yet, beyond Donaghy, none of those people -- all of whom would be in a position to corroborate Donaghy's claims to some extent -- have sided with him. And none has any obvious reason to support the NBA's position any longer.
Donaghy's credibility is questionable, and his anecdotes are hearsay-fraught recounts of frequently-cited examples, leaving me to doubt his claims. But the lack of corroboration from people who could readily-support those claims leads me to disbelieve much of what Donaghy says.
Because Donaghy managed to hide the truth about his impact on games for years, for one thing.
Why is that? [this should be interesting]
He pleaded guilty to federal crimes. Isn't that enough?
He kept to truth to those on a need to know basis. Besides that, nobody else asked him.
People have a naural right of pursuit of happiness. That includes gambling.Why is that? [this should be interesting]
No. I wouldn't believe anything the federal govenment said, especially the justice department. The federal govenrment lies about almost everything. We have become a police state.
Donaghy was Stern's scapegoat.
So if you deceive your employer and your customers (and they don't ask you about it for a while) but you tell your wife, you're not a liar?
States have a cons utional power to exercise a police power to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens.People have a naural right of pursuit of happiness. That includes gambling.
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