please see the 60 minute story
http://thehoopdoctors.com/online2/2009/12/tim-donaghy-interview-on-60-minutes-video/
when TD said he never personally influenced a game, i said no way. but when the fbi investigated him and came to the same conclusion, i tend to believe them.
donaghy went to jail for taking money from gamblers in exchange for inside information. the refs and the assignments in the nba are so predictable, he was able to predict 85% winners just based on his inside knowledge of the game, the refs, and who favors who.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2008-07-29-donaghy-sentence_N.htm
like canseco, he is no saint, far from it. but one of the problems with the way the media has handled the story (kid gloves because stern plays puppet master with them) is that people think he bet on games, or he rigged games. he did bet on games, but there is no evidence, and as far as I know not even allegations, that he himself rigged games.
I don't have time to watch the whole 60 minutes story. Is somebody from the FBI on record saying that he never influenced games, or is that Donaghy's self-serving claim?
The charges filed against Donaghy certainly don't clear him of influencing games, and since it's a crime to file a false complaint against somebody, I'd be willing to bet that the FBI had more evidence than Donaghy is now claiming.
Of course, at one point Pete Rose claimed that he never bet on baseball, too. When Donaghy is running low on money in the future, he'll write another book talking about the games he personally influenced. Right now, though, he's happy to pretend that he was the one honest official in a den of thieves, despite being the only one to serve prison time (for, again, his ties to organized crime.)
EDIT: And, as looseball says above, I'm sure that if the FBI is keeping quiet about this stuff, it's out of deference to the NBA (who worked closely with the FBI in the investigation). It wouldn't shock me at all if part of the NBA's agreement to let the FBI monitor Donaghy included a "keep hush" provision.
I'm surprised you've got this so wrong, Roy.
The FBI could never prove Donaghy fixed or rigged games--and they looked hard for it, and so did the NBA in it's investigation. But they could never prove it.
But you're not alone in your ignorance of this case--everyone who puts up strawman arguments against Donaghy does it by confusing 'rigging' with 'influencing'. All Donaghy has ever claimed is that the NBA influences series in order to extend them and make more profit. Donaghy was a party to the way the NBA 'influences' it's officials, in the form of pre-game meetings which emphasize this or that rule infraction, but what made him special (and a criminal as well) is that he figured out the motive behind such 'influence'--to help extend playoff series--and then used that formula to make winning bets 80-90 % of the time.
The beauty of the NBA's influence is that they maintain plausible deniability because everything they 'emphasize' is already in the rules books and it will be almost impossible to prove what their motive truly is. But by looking at the pattern of emphasis (of which Donaghy was a party to as a ref), TD able to figure out the NBA's motive and make a profit off it. You cannot deny that.
Let's remember one more thing: there's a HUGE difference between rigging and influencing. In a rigged game, the outcome is decided; in an unduly influenced game, the outcome is still up in the air. Players--even when officials are influencing the game--still have more overall control in the game's outcome because they're the ones passing, shooting, and dribbling. So, when people try to discredit Donaghy by saying he predicted the Cavs would beat the Cs, remember that Donaghy was only saying that the league had an interest in using their officials in help influence the outcome of that series in favor of Cleveland. He didn't say it was rigged in their favor--the players still have to make enough winning plays to win...and the Cavs couldn't do that, even with the help of influence.
Out of curiosity, how do you know what the FBI could or could not prove? Donaghy plead guilty, as I recall, as part of a plea.
They certainly *charged* that his "objectivity was compromised" and that he influenced games. I suppose they could have charged something that they had no evidence of, but since that's the only public statement that we have from the FBI on the matter (as far as I know), then I'm reluctant to say that the FBI had no proof.
I mean, other than Donaghy's own statements, does anybody have a link to a credible source suggesting that Donaghy didn't fix games? If I'm wrong here, I'll happily admit it. (And no, I wouldn't consider the NBA a credible source, since they have a vested interest in suggesting that their playoff games were clean.)
I think there's a big difference between what Donaghy's saying -- that the FBI concluded that he never fixed games -- and a lack of proof that he fixed games, due to the subjective nature of the NBA. I mean, you could call a foul on literally every play of every game, or you could swallow your whistle and "let them play" and it would be perfectly normal, too. If Donaghy selectively chose his whistles to influence matchups, how would you ever prove that outside of an admission?
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