My son became a big NBA basketball fan as he grew up and eventually I decided that the father-son trips we made would include visits to Phoenix
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| Tim Donaghy |
However, in the playoffs I slowly began to realize, as a seasoned basketball game broadcaster, that the NBA referee crew working the Suns versus Spurs series should be investigated for criminal activity. Many of the calls made in that 2007 series were so inexplicably bizarre, that there simply could be no other explanation. I swore off the NBA at the end of the 2007 season once and for all. And it came as no surprise later when NBA official Tim Donaghy was found by the FBI to be involved in gambling on NBA games he actually officiated. Donaghy had worked the Suns vs. Spurs series and bet on the Spurs. Amazingly, only Tim Donaghy was charged with a crime. Eventually Donaghy served only eleven months in prison. Donaghy's colleague Scott Foster, who received more than a hundred quick cell phone calls from Donaghy just before and after games somehow managed to escape prosecution.
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| David Stern |
NBA Commissioner David Stern seemed to be nodding and winking at the rest of the evidence of a more widespread problem when he declared Donaghy a "rogue official" acting alone during the press conference that closed the door on the scandal. On Saturday afternoon January 15, 2011 the same tell-tale signs of possible corruption turned up in the Baltimore
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1 comments:
Not only was the defensive holding call bogus but if you watch the replay from behind the offensive line angle you'll see a take down hold on the Pittsburgh right tackle that mirrors the same hold that cost the Dallas Cowboys a win against the Washington Redskins on the last play of their first game which resulted in a touchdown that was called back for offensive holding. It was comical to listen to the CBS announcers, who were completely silent, as the replay unfolded and the Pittsburgh tackle held and took down the Baltimore defender at the point of attack and yet no flag was thrown for holding. The Pittsburgh players and coaching staff are probably having a good laugh reviewing that play and seeing that a Baltimore defensive lineman was called for a holding penalty. --- JSS
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