Getty Image
Disgraced referee Tim Donaghy knows a thing or two about corruption in the NBA, and he has some thoughts on the people in the league who have the best chance of ending up at the center of the same kind of scandal that landed him in prison.
The NBA isn’t the only sports league that’s been rocked by a betting scandal, but with the possible exception of the Chicago Black Sox, it’s hard to think of any that were more explosive than the Tim Donaghy saga.
Donaghy started working as an NBA referee in 1994 and would ultimately do that job for thirteen seasons while officiating 772 regular season games and 26 postseason contests.
However, as you likely know, his career came to a shocking end in 2007 when the world learned he was the subject of an FBI investigation sparked by his ties to the mob associates who paid him to both relay inside information and use his officiating powers to fix games.
There are plenty of people who believe Donaghy (who ultimately spent 11 months in prison for his role in the racket) wasn’t the only ref who engaged in similar behavior. Current NBA ref Scott Foster received 134 phone calls from his former colleague in the year-and-a-half preceding the explosive revelations, and there are plenty of basketball fans who will tell you corruption is still alive and well in the league today.
During a recent conversation with The New York Post, Donaghy asserted refs aren’t the employees people need to worry about when it comes to another gambling scandal rocking the NBA while predicting the most likely source for a similar situation, saying:
“I think the players make too much money. I think the referees, after my situation, I don’t think it would be a referee.
I think it’ll come down to maybe a trainer or somebody that has information before it hits the open market about players being sick or players being injured. I think that’s how stuff is going to leak out.”
Only time will tell if Donaghy’s prophecy is fulfilled, but based on how lucrative gambling has become now that it’s legal in most states, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see something like that unfold.