Tim ‘Crooked Ref’ Donaghy stats: 2006-2007

Okay, Phoenix fans… game 3… 2 early fouls on Amare by Donaghy. Amare had 7 points in under 6 minutes in the first quarter. The next minute and 30 seconds he received two foul calls, and Donaghy was a hero to everyone who had their money on the Spurs that night. Oh yeah, Eddie Rush was officiating that night too (See Below).  De Ja Vu… Game 3 against the Lakers in ‘06, same Tim Donaghy.

Did the mob help the Spurs win? It’s starting to look like it.

Donaghy Referee Stats:

Home Team Against the Spread: 30-41-3
He was in the bottom 13.3 % of all refs in this category, road teams had to love him, it was all about the spread. Scary thing is that 7 refs were worse, including Eddie Rush.

Over/Under
He was in the top 5% of all refs in the category (43-29 O/U). Jim Clark & Olandis pool were the only worse. 65% of the time the over was the way to go when he was officiating.

Compare to his stats from 2005-206
Home Team Against the Spread: The improbably perfect 32-32-2
Over/Under 36-30 in favor of the over.

In 2004-2005:
Home team ATS: 35-26-4
Over/Under in 2004-2005 was 29-35

In 2003-2004:
Home team ATS: 35-35-0
Over/Under: 30-39

$mart money is on the ref$.

Donaghy’s official NBA biography:

NBA experience: 12 seasons, currently in his 13th NBA season
Born: January 7, 1967 (Delaware County, PA)
Resides: Bradenton, FL
HS: Cardinal O’Hara (Springfield, PA)
College: Villanova University ’89

“The feeling among many referees was that Garretson and Donaghy, the two senior referees, could have been much more assertive in calming things down before the incident hit its flash point when a fan threw a cup of ice at Artest as he lay prone on the scorer’s table.” (Chris Sheridan’s ESPN blog)

“Donaghy also was involved in another controversy a few years back when he engaged in a shouting match with Rasheed Wallace on the loading dock of The Rose Garden in Portland, an incident that led to a seven-game suspension for Wallace, who was then with the Portland Trail Blazers. Donaghy and the two other referees who had worked that game passed by Wallace as they walked to their cars, and Wallace was said to have threatened Donaghy, who had assessed him a technical foul earlier that night during a Grizzlies-Blazers game.” (Chris Sheridan’s ESPN blog)

NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI is investigating allegations that veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on basketball games over the past two seasons, including ones in which he officiated.

Defense attorney John Lauro confirmed Donaghy is under investigation but refused to comment on the allegations or the case.

According to a law enforcement official, authorities are examining whether the referee made calls to affect the point spread in games on which he or associates had wagered.

The law enforcement official, who spoke to the AP on Friday on condition of anonymity, said the referee was aware of the investigation and had made arrangements to surrender as early as next week to face charges. The official, who did not identify the referee, is familiar with the investigation but was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.

The law enforcement official said the bets involved thousands of dollars and were made on games during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Donaghy officiated 68 games in the 2005-06 season and 63 games in 2006-07. He also worked 20 playoff games, including five last season.

“As we previously stated, we have been cooperating with the FBI in their investigation of allegations that a single NBA referee bet on NBA games that he officiated,” commissioner David Stern said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Although asked by the government not to comment, Stern said the naming of Donaghy prompted a fuller statement.

“We would like to assure our fans that no amount of effort, time or personnel is being spared to assist in this investigation, to bring to justice an individual who has betrayed the most sacred trust in professional sports, and to take the necessary steps to protect against this ever happening again.”

The FBI probe, which began recently, also involves allegations that the referee had connections to organized crime associates. Other arrests are expected, the official said.

The referee had a gambling problem, according to the official, and was approached by low-level mob associates through an acquaintance.

The investigation first was reported Friday by the New York Post.

“I’m shocked, terribly shocked,” said Gary Benson, an NBA official for 17 years who retired two years ago because of knee problems. “Those are people that you work with and that you literally — you spend more time with those people than you do with your family.”

Benson said he didn’t work with Donaghy much.

“You have a lot of acquaintances and very few friends. … I probably worked a handful of games with him overall, just a handful.”

Nevada gambling regulators were not involved in an investigation and had no information about the allegations, said Jerry Markling, enforcement chief for the state Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board.

Markling, in Las Vegas, said he learned of the probe from news accounts.

“The allegations were new to us,” said Mark Clayton, a control board member. “However, we will continue to monitor them to ascertain whether there is any connection to Nevada’s licensed sports books.”

Veteran oddsmaker John Avello, at the Wynn resort on the Las Vegas Strip, said that without specific information it would be difficult to identify wagering irregularities over the last two seasons.

“At this point, it’s too early to know if any games were affected,” Avello said, adding that no regulators or investigators had contacted him about the case.

Jay Kornegay, executive director of the sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton, said he had never seen any unusual activity in NBA betting, and was surprised not to have heard about an investigation until Friday.

“Whispers would have happened on the street, and we would have heard something,” Kornegay said. “Any type of suspicious or unusual movements, you usually hear in the industry. We’re so regulated and policed, any kind of suspicion would be discussed.

“We haven’t seen anything like that in the NBA that I can remember,” he said, “and we haven’t been contacted by anybody.”

Kornegay said legal sports betting in Nevada represents a fraction of sports betting worldwide, with 98.5 percent of all action taken outside the state. Clayton cited a 2005 estimate by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission that found $380 billion is wagered on illegal sports betting, compared with $2.25 billion in legal sports betting in Nevada.

Gambling long has been a problem in sports, and leagues have made a point of educating players of the potential pitfalls. The NBA, for example, discusses gambling at rookie orientation, even bringing in former mobster Michael Franceze to speak.

NBA commissioner David Stern had long objected to putting a team in Las Vegas because it permits betting on basketball, though earlier this year allowed Mayor Oscar Goodman to submit a proposal to owners on how the city would handle wagering on a team if it moved there.

Goodman argues that legalized gambling, monitored by the Nevada Gaming Commission, prevents these types of suspicious activities.

“We’re the only regulatory agency in the world that really looks at unusual activity as far as the movement of the line and that type of conduct,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing that Las Vegas has the type of regulation that makes sure that bad things don’t happen.”

Associated Press Writer Ken Ritter and Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in Las Vegas and Noah Trister in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

11/12/06 

Mav’s 103 Blazers 96 - Devean Geoarge hits 2 late FT to cover spread.

 04/10/07

Nets 96 Wizards 92 Vince Carter makes 2 late FT to push spread.

02/26/07

Tim Donaghy was one of the three officials at the Miami/New York game this past February. The Knicks shot 39 free throws to the Heat’s 8. The Knicks were favored (-4) in the game. They beat the spread by 2.

01/03/04

“Detroit regained the lead and the ball with just 30 seconds left and Chauncey Billups drove the lane and collided with Brain Cardinal. Crew Chief Dick Bavetta called the play a charge but was overruled by referee Tim Donaghy who called the play a block and awarded Billups two free throws. Upon looking a replay of the events, it was a very close call, but appeared to be a charge which would have given the Warriors ball and a chance.”

01/19/07

The Spurs had to go most of Friday with Carlesimo guiding them. Popovich picked up his first technical foul for yelling at referee Joe DeRosa after the official called a foul on Tim Duncan for bumping Hornets center Tyson Chandler. Popovich took his seat, but continued to bark at referee Tim Donaghy, who was standing near the bench.

Donaghy calmly stared at the opposite end of the court as Popovich voiced his complaint about the “(expletive) call.” But when Popovich shouted, “Yeah, I’m talking to you,” that seemed to be all Donaghy needed to hear. He turned and ejected the coach.

01/19/2000

“That may have been the worst call of my career,” said a dumbfounded Karl afterward. “An important game like this and then to take me off the bench. For what I said? That’s a sad commentary on officiating. “That was the cheapest throw-out of my career.” Karl got the heave-ho from referee Tim Donaghy with 4:54 left in the first half during a three-point play by Bucks forward Glenn Robinson. Karl received the first technical for telling Donaghy that Indiana’s Jalen Rose was riding Robinson on a drive, a call that referee Mike Mathis ended up making. Karl then strolled out to midcourt to ask Donaghy why he had received the technical. “What the hell did I say?” Karl inquired of Donaghy. Donaghy’s only response was to whistle-up Karl again, providing him with his walking papers. “That technical was the worst job of officiating that I can remember,” said Karl. “Maybe it was something personal from before, but I don’t remember anything.”

04/09/05

Tim Donaghy, the referee who tossed coach Doc Rivers against the New Jersey Nets at Continental Airlines Arena April 9, officiated last night. Rivers picked up two technicals in just 1 minute 41 seconds in that game. It was the quickest ejection of a coach during the regular season.While Rivers admitted he deserved the second T, he thought the first was unwarranted and believed Donaghy had something against him. The next day, Rivers called the league and lodged a complaint. Last night, however, Rivers said he was fine with Donaghy being assigned Boston’s first playoff game. (Boston won)

12/12/06

Coach Hill stormed the floor to throw his body in front of the Suns early in the final quarter. Actually, an enraged Hill was on the court protesting another foul on Howard, the 6 foot-11 center who virtually vanished in the fury and flurry of the Suns’ pinball offense.
Howard, no match for counterpart Stoudemire, already had been whistled for a technical foul.
It was Hill’s turn, and he had to be held back by several Magic players from going after referee Tim Donaghy.

05/20/02

Shaq got taken out of the ballgame,” Jackson said. “The NBA has been watching these games for how many years? We played them in the playoffs forfour out of the five years? Every time at the beginning of the game, Vlade does all the same stuff, and the referees fall for the same Vlade flop stuffyear in and year out. And if they don’t know enough - and I went over to thereferee [Tim Donaghy] and said, ‘If you don’t know enough to [let them] playthrough that stuff, you’re just eliminating Shaq from the game.’ You don’twant to take him out of the game. You don’t want to make this game differentfrom what it should be. And players shouldn’t be rewarded for this kind ofan act. You’re rewarding this guy for this act. That’s totally unfortunate.”O’Neal would only say that Sunday’s game was “predetermined,” presumably bythe referees.

11/28/00

Both Portland coach Mike Dunleavy and guard Bonzi Wells were ejected in the fourth quarter. Wells whipped his headbandacross the court at referee Tim Donaghy and knocked over a watercooler before leaving the court. “If there was contact between Bonzi and the official I think itwas accidental and done out of frustration,” said Dunleavy, whowas watching on television from the locker room at the time. “I think from the look on his face, he was really that he got a technical.”

05/12/07

The Suns’ coaches and players had a running dialogue with referees Greg Willard, Eddie Rush and Tim Donaghy in Game 3. And Nash said part of mental toughness includes getting over questionable calls quickly. “Sometimes you have to voice your opinion, and sometimes it’s good to be passionate and emotional,” he said. “But it can be to a detriment if you get too emotional. You have to learn to use it to your advantage.” D’Antoni said: “You can plead, cry, whine do all those as long as it doesn’t affect your focus on the court. You can’t whine, and then be soft or out of position. You have to play basketball.”

Wallace confronted Donaghy, who had given him a T, on the Rose Garden’s loading docks. Eyewitnesses say Wallace cocked his fist and, when the ref recoiled, said, “You better flinch, you motherf—— punk…. I am going to kick your f—— ass.” (Wallace denies that he threatened Donaghy with his fist, and the players’ union plans to appeal his suspension, which, if it stands, will cost him $1.26 million in salary.)

05/29/06

Referee Tim Donaghy called a foul on Johan Petro on the opening tip - 1 second into the game - for bumping Yao on the jump.

January 2005

“In January 2005 his next-door neighbors in suburban Philadelphia sued him for harassment and invasion of privacy for a pattern of discord that had reportedly gone on for several years. Peter and Lisa Mansueto claimed that Donaghy vandalized their property and stalked them, even to the point of following Mrs. Mansueto around Radley Run Country Club, where Donaghy and the Mansuetos were members. After an internal investigation, Donaghy was suspended from Radley Run for the summer and early fall of 2004. The suit also alleged that Donaghy set fire to the Mansuetos’ tractor and crashed their golf cart into a ravine.”

The home of NBA official Tim Donaghy is seen Friday afternoon July 20, 2007 in Bradenton, Fla. The FBI is investigating allegations that Donaghy bet on basketball games over the past two seasons, including ones in which he officiated.

(AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

“As we previously stated, we have been cooperating with the FBI in their investigation of allegations that a single NBA referee bet on NBA games that he officiated. As part of that cooperation, we were asked by the Government not to comment about the investigation, but in light of the widespread press coverage and the naming of the referee, Tim Donaghy, we consider it appropriate to make a fuller statement.”

“We would like to assure our fans that no amount of effort, time or personnel is being spared to assist in this investigation, to bring to justice an individual who has betrayed the most sacred trust in professional sports, and to take the necessary steps to protect against this ever happening again. We will have more to say at a press conference that will be scheduled for next week.”
-David Stern 07/20/07

“the best officials, the best-monitored officials, the best-developed officials in all of sports.”
-David Stern a few months ago.

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
- Lord Acton

If the allegations prove to be true against the NBA ref for betting on games and being involved with organized crime, it’s time to clean house.

We’ve complained, the players have complained, the owners have complained, and now the FBI is saying ‘Something is criminally wrong here’.

Now get rid of the biggest crooks of all Stu & Stern.

July 20 (Bloomberg) — A National Basketball Association referee is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly betting on games, the head of the referees association said.

“These accusations, if true, are extremely serious and we have been in discussions with the NBA regarding this matter,” Lamell McMorris said in an interview. “In light of the fact that this is an ongoing federal criminal investigation, we have nothing further to say at this time.”

The NBA said in a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked it not to comment. FBI spokesman Neil Donovan didn’t immediately return calls for comment.

The New York Post reported today that a referee, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, was working with organized crime to affect the outcome of games.

The FBI is set to arrest the referee, who allegedly wagered on games the past two seasons, along with others who profited from the scheme, according to the Post, citing people it didn’t name. The referee bet on games he officiated, the Post said.

Baseball has been involved in some of the biggest sports gambling scandals. Members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox were banned from the sport for taking money to lose the World Series. Pete Rose was banished in 1989 for betting on the Cincinnati Reds while he was managing the team.

In college basketball, players from schools including the City College of New York were implicated in rigging games in the late 1940s, and organized crime figure Henry Hill plotted with Boston College players in the late 1970s.

NBA referees have been under federal investigation before. Several officials pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges in 1998 after an Internal Revenue Service probe revealed a scheme of exchanging first-class airline tickets for cheaper ones and pocketing the difference without reporting the extra income.

LAS VEGAS–An NBA Summer League game between the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs on Monday featured 74 personal fouls, 35 turnovers, and dozens of air balls in a horrifying spectacle that set the game of basketball back about 30 years. Fans in attendance sat in stunned silence as the teams stumbled their way through the sordid affair, which seemed to last six hours.
“Wow. That was…interesting,” said fan Bob Kilgore, 35. “That was…I don’t even know how to describe that. I actually saw a player hit the 24- second clock with a jump shot – directly, not off the backboard. I don’t think I saw two straight possessions that resulted in buckets. It was just ‘Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!’ all day long. Was that rim made of aluminum? It sounded like someone taking a hammer to the inside of a trash barrel. The only thing this ‘game’ had in common with a real NBA game was that the players were wearing shorts and almost nobody was watching it.”
Another fan who witnessed the tragedy, Daniel Moseman, called it “an abortion.”
“That was an abortion,” said Moseman, 28. “It tarnished the game of basketball. At one point this point guard for San Antonio, whose name escapes me, drove into the lane, threw up a lay-up, hit the bottom of the rim, caught the carom, and then hurled it behind him into the stands. Then security had to run into the stands and get the ball because it was the only one they had, but the fan wouldn’t give it up, so they ended up tasering the guy, and then everybody cheered because that was like the most exciting moment of the whole game.”
Late in the third quarter, two unidentified players collided at mid court and fell down, and a third player picked up the ball and launched a three point shot that clanged off the front off the rim and dropped lifelessly to the floor.
Both teams, along with the referees, stood silently and wondered what to do next.
“What a moment that was,” said Moseman. “Everybody was just standing around waiting for someone else to do something. So I started screaming ‘Get the ball!’ and nobody moved. So I ran all the way down to the front row, tapped the official on the back and explained to him that someone needed to pick up the ball and do something with it. He ran the ball over to some random player, who grabbed it, hurled up a half court shot, which went in, right as the buzzer was sounding to end the third quarter. The kid got mobbed by his teammates. Next thing you know he’ll be all over Sportscenter. Talk about bitter irony.”
The entire fourth quarter went by without a bucket, causing the game, which was tied, to go into a two minute overtime period, which was decided by a free throw on a technical foul resulting from the Spurs utilizing two basketballs at the same time in an attempt to trick the Celtics defenders.
Only a heads-up call by the official prevented the scheme from working.
“With the game winding down the Spurs tried a little trickery, but it backfired on them,” said referee Jed Costas. “See, people think because this is the Summer League they can fool us with anything, but I think we proved them wrong today. Actually I shouldn’t say they were trying to ‘fool’ us exactly, because both Spurs players were absolutely convinced it was legal to use two balls in the final seconds of overtime games. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for them.”
Armond Hill, coach of the Celtics Summer League squad, admitted that it was a “painful” game, but explained that the games were meant to be educational, not pretty.
“It’s just a chance for some of the young kids to get their feet wet,” said Hill. “For some, it’s their only chance to show us the few skills that they have and the many, many skills that they don’t have. Of course it’s kind of ugly and it’s about ten thousand notches below the NBDL, but that’s okay. It’s not supposed to be good basketball. If you want good basketball, wait until the NBA season starts. Actually, wait until the Euroleague season starts.”

http://www.thebrushback.com/summerleague_full.htm

Shortly after the Kings and Warriors got the news that they would have an extra $2.5 million to spend, they also received word that they wouldn’t be able to keep a little more in their own pockets.

The NBA suspended former Indiana Pacers teammates Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest for 7 games each to start the 2007-2008 season.

Artest and Jackson will both lose over $400,000 for their incredibly stupid actions off the basketball court, and will have to pay $600 and $5,000 respectively, in fines for judges decisions in the court.

Missing almost 10% of the season months before it’s to kick off seems a little ridiculous. In reality they should both spend the next few months in jail. See if that would correct the problems.