Tim Donaghy did bad things. During the last two years of his 13 year NBA officiating career, the FBI found that Donaghy bet on games he officiated, making inaccurate calls to affect the point spread. He pleaded guilty to two federal charges was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison in 2008. After serving 11 months, he was released to a halfway house to live out the rest of his sentence, but thrown back in the slammer for violating the terms of his release. If we’re giving credit where it’s due, props to Donaghy for never snitching on his fellow officials for wrongdoing, when its more than likely they were enticed by dollar signs too.
Before last night’s Game 5 Finals game in which the Warriors bested the Cavs 129-120 to win their second championship in three years, Donaghy raised some eyebrows when he suggested that the NBA would do everything in its power to extend the series to pocket millions more in revenue.
Donaghy made an appearance on KNBR radio in the Bay Area to say this:
Tim Donaghy on KNBR: The NBA will instruct the officials to get this to a Game 6 pic.twitter.com/ISsqOT5lOm
— Kevin Jones (@Mr_KevinJones) June 12, 2017
As you can imagine, Donaghy and the NBA aren’t on great terms, as the NBA has claimed Donaghy owes it $1.4 million, including $577,000 of his pay and benefits over four seasons, but you can’t help but think the NBA has a vested interest in treating the NBA a bit like the WWE. Good theater equals good money. Draymond Green’s mom agrees. After Game 4, she ranted on Twitter about how the refs are “being paid to extend the Finals.”
Klay Thompson being whistled for a foul just 12 seconds into Game 5, an early technical foul from a 3-second violation, and KD picking up two early fouls seemed to jive with Donaghy’s conspiracy theory.
But in the end, not even a sixth man could have combatted one of the greatest teams ever assembled.
[h/t Uproxx]