Craaaaazy Excerpts from Donaghy's (upcoming?) Book

[Brickowski]

The other refs can say what they want under oath, and so can Donaghy.  The question is, which testimony will the jury believe?

Right now, having watched the NBA for 30 years, I believe Donaghy.

The NBA will have a better chance of winning its case if, during voir dire, its lawyers can exclude any juror who has actually watched an NBA game.

TP for the info Brick.

Also, your line "Right now, having watched the NBA for 30 years, I believe Donaghy" made me laugh because I feel the exact same way. (except it's been 20 yrs for me).

Actually I've been watching for alot longer than 30 years, but I refuse to age gracefully.
Besides, I did not have such misgivings about the integrity of the NBA when Mindy Rudolph and Sid Borgia were officiating.

[Finkelskyhook]

Are games fixed by the NBA, ABSOLUTELY NOT!

I'm not so sure.  If a draft lottery order can be....Why can't a game?  What are the odds that the most overtly tanking teams two years back just happened to all have the worst possible draft scenario in the upcoming draft?

Because of the way stars are officiated, I don't think it's much of a reach at all that the same "subjective" interpretation of the rules can be used to influence the outcome of games.  How do you tell?

[goz421]

I'v'e been in basketball a long time and feel what he says is truth.  It disgust me how money has ruined this game.
Was it not Bavetta who made that God awful call when Paul Pierce hit that three in the playoffs and he called a charge?

I for one am glad he has spoken up.

If they can pursue the Pats for that garbage they did I hope the pursue this.

[jdpapa3]

The Bavetta stuff rings very true to my ears. I remember a game in Utah last year...and the Celtics were up 10 or so and Bavetta just stole the show. He called about 3 absurd fouls in a row and the game ended up being close at halftime. That is what my memory is telling me, and I'm pretty sure KG got injured shortly thereafter, so I hate Bavetta and think he is very into himself.

[fairweatherfan]

Are games fixed by the NBA, ABSOLUTELY NOT!

I'm not so sure.  If a draft lottery order can be....Why can't a game?  What are the odds that the most overtly tanking teams two years back just happened to all have the worst possible draft scenario in the upcoming draft?

The lottery's not fixed either - the odds of ANY possible combination are extremely low.  Someone did the math, and the odds of even the 3 worst records (Memphis, us, Milwaukee) making up the Top 3 in any order was less than 5%.  It's like picking a card out of a deck and calling the deck rigged since there was less than a 2% chance that specific card would get picked.  And putting two players who were thought to have superstar potential in Portland and Seattle/OKC isn't exactly the NBA's dream scenario.

The Bavetta stuff rings very true to my ears. I remember a game in Utah last year...and the Celtics were up 10 or so and Bavetta just stole the show. He called about 3 absurd fouls in a row and the game ended up being close at halftime. That is what my memory is telling me, and I'm pretty sure KG got injured shortly thereafter, so I hate Bavetta and think he is very into himself.

Yeah, that was the KG injury game, we got up big and Bavetta decided it was time to start big-timing Pruitt, and then just ran with it and went ridiculously one-sided for a quarter or so.  I think Dick Bavetta was the model for the AI in NBA Jam.

[Brickowski]

And according to Dan Wetzel, it's not just the fans.  The people in the league believe a good deal of what Donaghy is saying too.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AnphA08kQvJAVQZsLWWuak68vLYF?slug=dw-donaghybook102909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[Donoghus]

And according to Dan Wetzel, it's not just the fans.  The people in the league believe a good deal of what Donaghy is saying too.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AnphA08kQvJAVQZsLWWuak68vLYF?slug=dw-donaghybook102909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Wetzel's right. The only thing the NBA could ever do in regards to this is to "deny it."

Any admission would prove disasterous to the league and would be, by far, the worst PR nightmare the league has ever faced. 

As much as the basketball public can speculate on this and read with eagerness about Donaghy's allegations, we're never gonna get an open admission from the NBA.  Down the road, we might be more snip-its here and there from people once associated with the league, but it'll still be left up to speculation. 

The only thing that could really ever get this in the open would be the launch of some federal investigation.  There's certainly not enough to go there now.

[Cman]

However, i think i would be in favor of the officiating getting more exposed. No more star treatment. A foul should be a foul. The best team wins. That is the entertainment I want.

Everyone wants this.  Things won't change overnight, but for the long term health of the NBA, things do need to be more transparent.  If its all about the stars, then the NBA will be little different from "pro"-wrestling.

[fairweatherfan]

And according to Dan Wetzel, it's not just the fans.  The people in the league believe a good deal of what Donaghy is saying too.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AnphA08kQvJAVQZsLWWuak68vLYF?slug=dw-donaghybook102909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Wetzel's right. The only thing the NBA could ever do in regards to this is to "deny it."

Any admission would prove disasterous to the league and would be, by far, the worst PR nightmare the league has ever faced. 

As much as the basketball public can speculate on this and read with eagerness about Donaghy's allegations, we're never gonna get an open admission from the NBA.  Down the road, we might be more snip-its here and there from people once associated with the league, but it'll still be left up to speculation. 

The only thing that could really ever get this in the open would be the launch of some federal investigation.  There's certainly not enough to go there now.

And ironically, this book, released or not, means that there'll be no significant officiating reform anytime soon either, for fear of seeming like they're validating this stuff.  It's a catch-22: the more allegations get thrown around, the more the league has to dig its heels in to save face.  The less people are talking about it, the less pressure to fix it.

Also, funny tidbit - the article mentions Sheed.  Remember a fews years back when Sheed got suspended for cornering and threatening a ref at the loading dock after a game?  Yeah, that was Donaghy.

[Rondo_is_better]

I'm pretty sure he's making everything up and presenting it in a way that's supposed to make the conspiracy theorist fans irate. He's merely telling lies with some extra details thrown in to make it look like truth, not to mention tearing down his former colleagues (like Dick Bavetta, who he calls an attention grubbing jerk, basically).

He's scum and he's proving it. I can't see how his wife or kids could stand to support someone so twisted with such a black heart.

[ToppersBsktball10]

I don't think games are 'fixed' but I believe the NBA roots for certain teams and players too win, and they get more calls than they should.

[Eja117]

Amazingly if this went to trial on some level I assume the NBA would try hard to keep NBA fans off the jury

And that in and of itself tells you all you want to know about how the fans of NBA basketball already perceive it. Stern has been sucking up to the disinterested fan and non fan for years doing everything in his power to grab at their attention and pocketbooks that he has lost, to some extent, his core fan base. He has forgotten, in the end, who really keeps the food on the table for him. He needs to clean up the act of the refereeing and the obvious bias towards certain markets, players and teams and allow the game itself to attract the fans. That's what happened in the early 80's. The game brought the fans and made the superstars, not the other way around.

And the cruddy thing about it is that time after time with a smirk on his face when asked Stern basically says "Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own lying eyes?"

[Eja117]

Amazingly if this went to trial on some level I assume the NBA would try hard to keep NBA fans off the jury

pretty standard procedure in any case.

For instance, im pretty much barred from any jury because one of my close relatives is a police officer.

I've been called for jury service twice, and during questioning both times i've been asked the fateful "do you have any close family in law enforcement?"

Both times i've been immediately disqualified as a juror, once by the prosecutions challenge, once by the defendants.

I agree it's ironic though

No that's not what I meant. I meant that one would expect NBA fans to want to help protect the league and not a crooked NBA ref. Yet the league themselves would seek to disqualify their own fans from jury duty because they realize their own fans aren't satisfied with the officiating and are "biased" against them, as opposed to for them.

You'd think the ref lawyers would seek to disqualify nba fans, but I bet they'd prefer them

That's pretty sad for the league

I dunno, certainly what i posted doesn't directly apply, but i do find it funny, more so for the prosecution that traditionaly both sides in a case want to dismiss people with legal and criminal knowledge (they ask about family who are lawyers to)

Same principle, if a little less on point. Lawyers do not like people with knowledge of the subject on juries. It makes it harder for lawyers to make arguments to them.

Can you imagine the lawyers for the nba asking jurors questions like "Did you watch game 6, or any other game, of the Lakers vs Sacramento playoff series?"

Have you ever watched a game where Tommy Heinsohn is doing commentary?

[CDawg834]

I also do believe Bavetta is in some fashion crooked

For one, he definitely threw that footrace against Charles Barkley.

[Schupac]

Does this surprise anyone?  I don't need Donaghy to tell me the Sacramento/Lakers game 6 was a screw job.  All I needed was eyes and a very basic understanding of sports in general.

I truly, truly hope this garners attention from some politician who is a fan of a team that got screwed and has too much time on their hands.  I hope this gets pursued and the higher ups whom I believe are complicit in the biased officiating are forced to step down.  Not even for a love of the game, but for a love of honesty and a feeling of insult at being condescended to by Ronnie Nunn, David Stern, Stew Jackson, etc. for so long.