db44
Jun 11th, 2008, 10:33 AM
Tim Donaghy, the ref already in trouble for fraud and point shaving charges regarding fixing games, is saying the league has fixed games and playoff series to favor certain players, teams and tv ratings.
The playoff series in question seem to be the 2002 Western Conference finals and a series in 2005 involving the Rockets. Both series were considered questionable at the time, to the point Jeff Van Gundy said he was told by someone in the league that the officials were targeting Yao Ming (Van Gundy was fined 100K).
The question to me therefore is whether he really has this information, or is he just picking high-profile instances to talk about?
On the other hand of it, the NBA is acting like such allegations are brand new. I can't remember a time when there weren't questions about the sport being fixed. The allegation were the same as when Donaghy was involved in the Suns loss to the Spurs in the playoffs, and that obvioulsy was true... But everyone I know was at the time waiting to find out when we would find out who else was involved. Not "if," "when."
Also Stern never seems credible. He refuses to talk when he doesn't like the question, gets snippy (i.e. with Dan Patrick, while defending the officials in the Suns/Spurs series... Which again proved to be a farce), and since Donaghy was charged in the case, he's repeatedly said he wanted to talk to Donaghy... Wouldn't that be tampering with a federal investigation?
On ESPN radio this morning, I heard the league was trying to sue Donaghy, saying the NBA was a victim in the case... The analyst said that's likely why Donaghy admitted to these new claims. He made it sound like the NBA lawsuit itself, for a million dollars, was frivilous.
The playoff series in question seem to be the 2002 Western Conference finals and a series in 2005 involving the Rockets. Both series were considered questionable at the time, to the point Jeff Van Gundy said he was told by someone in the league that the officials were targeting Yao Ming (Van Gundy was fined 100K).
The question to me therefore is whether he really has this information, or is he just picking high-profile instances to talk about?
On the other hand of it, the NBA is acting like such allegations are brand new. I can't remember a time when there weren't questions about the sport being fixed. The allegation were the same as when Donaghy was involved in the Suns loss to the Spurs in the playoffs, and that obvioulsy was true... But everyone I know was at the time waiting to find out when we would find out who else was involved. Not "if," "when."
Also Stern never seems credible. He refuses to talk when he doesn't like the question, gets snippy (i.e. with Dan Patrick, while defending the officials in the Suns/Spurs series... Which again proved to be a farce), and since Donaghy was charged in the case, he's repeatedly said he wanted to talk to Donaghy... Wouldn't that be tampering with a federal investigation?
On ESPN radio this morning, I heard the league was trying to sue Donaghy, saying the NBA was a victim in the case... The analyst said that's likely why Donaghy admitted to these new claims. He made it sound like the NBA lawsuit itself, for a million dollars, was frivilous.