Bad Call

Though I am not a particularly big fan of professional basketball (I am more a fan of college basketball), I am a casual fan of just about every sport around (that I have heard of at least), and so I try to keep up on the news about basketball as I would most other sports. There has been a recent scandal in the NBA that might even be the largest the sport has ever faced involving mafia ties and gambling by a referee who apparently gambled on games he officiated. While the whole story has yet to come out, what has come out looks very damaging for the credibility of referees in basketball, the particular referee in question, and the NBA's image as a whole, even among a rather corrupt sports climate generally right now.

As the story goes, a referee by the name of Tom Donaghy, whose father was a college basketball referee (so being a referee is in the blood, so to speak) apparently had some gambling debts as he lived an opulent lifestyle in eastern Pennsylvania. He was apparently contacted by a low-level mafia figure over the debts and offered a deal that he couldn't refuse--the debts would be forgiven if he used his whistle to influence the point spreads of games he officiated and make his new associates happy. He apparently took the offer and refereered well enough to be given prestigious assignments, including playoff games. His whistle may have been twisted, but it was apparently not twisted enough to make him anything less than a well-regarded referee (which says something about the state of refereeing in the NBA). Now that his name has come out, information has come out that says that Mr. Donaghy may have been warned about his gambling problem by the NBA before the current FBI case was publicized. If this is the case, then the NBA stands as well to be culpable as they enabled him to affect the course of important games after this warning.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can now look back on some of the most important games that Donaghy has officiated and look at how his calls may have been tainted by other concerns. Once someone is found to be corrupt, their decisions fall under much harsher scrutiny. The arrogant dismissals from David Stern, the head of the NBA, about the lack of moral rectitude among referees appears to have come back to bite him. If a ref can be tainted and be considered a pretty good ref, who is to say that there are not more corrupt referees around? The following is a list of the games that, so far, reek of the most corruption:

Game 3, Western Conference Semifinals, 2007: San Antonio 108-Phoenix 101. This game is marred by bad calls, in particular a phantom (and delayed) foul that gave San Antonio three free throws in the 3rd quarter, and other foul calls that kept Phoenix Suns star Amare Stoudemire on the bench except for 21 minutes. The Spurs were favored by 4 points and ended up winning by 7, meaning the calls Donaghy made appeared to have accounted for the point spread in the game. Already a questionable game before the calls, the news of Donaghy's corruption makes this game, and the series as a whole, a tainted one, and diminishes the achievement of the Spurs in winning the NBA title this past year.

November 2004, "The Brawl at the Palace," Indiana versus Detriot. This game, the infamous brawl that ended up with numerous players given lengthy supsensions for lengthy brawling on the court as well as fighting in the stands (between players and patrons) was officiated by Donaghy and others. Apparently this was not the first time Donaghy had problems with Rasheed Wallace, the combative Detriot player (who had threatened the ref a year before and had earned a seven game suspension for it). Donaghy and others were widely condemned for letting the fighting go on for too long, but now there are questions there may have been ulterior motives for the lax officiating with regards to the fighting.

Donaghy does not appear to have been a popular fellow among his peers, certainly not a proof of any guilt, but also a sign that he does not have any support already, much less after these allegations and the mounting evidence have come out. With Donaghy under police protection and a widening FBI probe exposing a lot of very unfriendly evidence, the picture for the NBA looks grim indeed. Where it will lead is a story that may yet be told in the days and weeks and months to come.