NBA Nightmare

This is the worst kind a nightmare. A nightmare that gains national attention. A nightmare that can damage your league’s integrity. A nightmare that could have your fans second guessing your employees for decades to come. A nightmare that will be linked to your tenure forever. This is NBA Commissioner David Stern’s nightmare.\nTim Donaughy, a 13-year veteran NBA referee, is being investigated by the FBI for allegations that he betted on basketball games he officiated over the past two NBA seasons. Wow! Who is Tim Donaughy? After Googling a picture of Donaughy, I still didn’t recognize him. Ironically enough, he was one of the referees who officiated the infamous November 2004 Pacers-Pistons brawl. He is also one of four refs, the most notable being Joey Crawford, who went to the same Pennsylvania high school. \nAmerican sports have a history of game fixing. One of the most memorable game fixings was the 1919 Chicago White Sox, dubbed the Black Sox, where some of the team’s players were paid off to lose the World Series. Another fixed game occurred in 1994, a point-shaving scandal involving players from the Arizona State men’s basketball team. And of course there’s Pete Rose, who in 2004 finally admitted he bet on baseball games and other sports, including a player and manager. What makes the Donaughy scandal different from those is that the others were the players’ faults, while he has been the only game official.\nBut after I got passed the shock that a referee would participate in this sort of behavior, I think I’m more surprised that Stern and sports fans haven’t seen something like this coming. \nIf bookies want the outcome they are hoping for, why not go to an official instead of a player to help you achieve that outcome? Professional players are high profile, which make them bad targets for bookies. In contrast, officials aren’t.\nOut of the three biggest major-league sports: the NBA, MLB and the NFL, I think the NBA would be the easiest to for an official to point shave. For example, let’s take two struggling teams from the last NBA season. Who would notice a once 15-point lead in the fourth quarter dwindle down to five by the end of the game to cover the spread? The NBA is full of meaningless regular season games that could end in the fashion I just laid out.\nHere are some facts the from Elias Sports Bureau about games where Donaughy was one of the officiating refs. When the home team was favored by 0-4.5 points, it went 5-12, and according to Covers.com, home underdogs were 1-7 when the spread was 5-9.5 points. One game to note that Donaughy was involved in last year was a game against the Heat-Knicks. The Knicks shot 39 free throws to the Heat’s eight, technical fouls were called on Heat coach Pat Riley and assistant Ron Rothstein and the Knicks won by six. New York was favored by 4 1/2. Was that a game whose outcome was predetermined by Donaughy to cover a point spread?\nHaving officials participate in game fixes can turn fans away more quickly than any steroid scandal or player’s legal troubles. Even if these allegations are not true, they should cause the commissioners of all professional sports to have their eyes wide open. Commissioners need to take appropriate steps to make sure referee scandals such as this one have no chance of happening again, because if they don’t and fans start to question the integrity of what they are watching and paying for, they will be thought of in the same vein as professional wrestling.