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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > June > 11
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Is there some truth to Donaghy’s claims?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lee Harvey Oswald was JFK’s lone assassin, and Tim Donaghy was the only referee in NBA history ever to fix a game or to think about it.
Yeah, that makes sense.
This makes better sense: There were more shooters on the grassy knoll, and Donaghy is telling much of the truth regarding his allegations of league-wide attempts through the years to fix playoff games.
He says top NBA executives were the masterminds of the attempts. He says referees were told to protect star players. He says those same referees were asked repeatedly by those top NBA executives to call bogus fouls in an attempt to manipulate the outcome of games.
Whatever Donaghy says, he likely isn’t telling the whole truth, because he is trying to shorten his future stay in prison after pleading guilty to felony charges regarding his alleged taking of cash payoffs from gamblers and betting on NBA games.
It’s just that Donaghy makes more sense than Richard Buchanan, the NBA executive vice president and general counsel, who said of Donaghy’s allegations, “The only criminal activity uncovered is Mr. Donaghy’s.”
And the only shooter in Dealey Plaza was in the Texas School Book Depository.
Anyway, according to Donaghy in a letter to a federal judge, those top NBA executives had referees manipulate playoff games in an effort to make each series reach a highly lucrative seventh game. He gives an example from 2002 involving the Lakers and the Kings, and another from 2005 involving the Rockets and the Mavericks.
Both examples are plausible, especially given the controversies surrounding both series at the time. Donaghy’s conspiracy remarks become even more plausible after hearing NBA commissioner David Stern Tuesday night before the Lakers-Celtics playoff game in Los Angeles.
Said Stern, “The U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one who is guilty of a crime.”
That’s nearly the same thing Buchanan said about Donaghy’s claims. Sounds like talking points, as in top NBA executives are trying to be careful with their words here.
For all we know, the league conspired earlier during the playoffs to keep the Hawks from whipping the Celtics in that Game 7 in Boston.
Well, probably not.
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