Donaghy points fingers at players and coaches

[35Reggie]

I just hope this doesn't distract the NBA from dealing with the main issue this offseason, which is the overall terrible quality of the officials and inconsistency in their calls based on who the offenders and offendees are.

[mkogav]

I just hope this doesn't distract the NBA from dealing with the main issue this offseason, which is the overall terrible quality of the officials and inconsistency in their calls based on who the offenders and offendees are.

The NBA has has never cared about this and are not likely to change. The NBA is 'star centric'

Mk

[Roy Hobbs]

about a referee that passed "confidential" information to an unidentified coach.

Giving information to coaches. 

Yeah, presumably that was about an injury issue.  That shouldn't be discussed, period.  The league should do an investigation as to who the ref was, and they should discipline him, but of course they won't.

The coach should be punished as well.

It depends.  If the ref went up to a coach and said "you know, Lebron isn't playing tomorrow.  That hasn't been made public yet, but it's been made official to the league", then I'm not sure if the coach deserves discipline.  If he solicited, on the other hand, he absolutely does.

[CoachBo]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3404607

Interesting stuff.

Can't say I've seen enough evidence to totally buy these assertions, but the league's scorched earth response - plus some of the, shall we say, unique calls the Celtics have endured during the first two rounds of the playoffs - make me unable to categorically reject these claims. I can still see Ray getting called for an offensive foul for throwing a leg out on a jumper, and Billups going to the line last night for the exact same thing.

Your thoughts?

[Bankshot]

I believe there are others betting on games like Donaghy was.  Just look at the officiating!  It's too horrible to think otherwise, imo.  Too much money to be made and the fact that cheating has come up in almost every other sport doesn't help to convince me that nothing is going on in the NBA.  Do people honestly believe that with all the money to be made that Donagy was the one and only ref EVER doing this?  Wake up people.

[CoachBo]

The league's rush to put Donaghy in the Oswald "acted alone" role is every bit as suspicious as any other piece of evidence.

And most recently, there unquestionably were two bad and one questionable calls in Game 6 against Cleveland which blunted the C's comeback.

Not saying Donaghy's right. Just saying there's game evidence, and the NBA's own questionable behavior, that makes me wonder.

[BadNewsBarnes]

Do people honestly believe that with all the money to be made that Donagy was the one and only ref EVER doing this?  Wake up people.

I brought up this same question in another thread about the officiating in the playoffs.  Of course it's all speculation at this point.  Donaghy's comments, regardless of his credibility, certainly make you wonder.  I choose to believe that there were others involved and Stern and the NBA have gone to great lengths to cover it up.  Let's be honest Stern's credibility is questionable at best.

[Amonkey]

It's interesting how this is not becoming a big deal in the national media.  In a way, I dont wanna know if this is true or not, because I'd like to think that this is a lie and the game is not tainted (like Spygate and the whole steroids).  But this is something to be looked into.

First of all, it's wierd that the NBA directly attack's the man's credibility so we think it was a one man gang (unlike the whole Spygate thing- which is basically the same exact thing) instead of conducting a full investigation and not rely on the testimony of the same guy to dismiss the case.  By why aren't ESPN talking more about this?!?

Seriously, there was something about Spygate still!  The other day the story was that Bob Ryan, a "credible local writer", writes something negative about the Patriots and the story was "Locals are turning against the Patriots"!  Is that really news?!?  Now when something like this happens, which would have 100 times more effect during a game (and he did it over 100 times) and NOTHING IS BEING SAID!

Like Tom Brady said, ESPN is becoming like MTV.  Less substance and more crap.