OT - Thoughts on the Donaghy accusations?

This topics been all over the news for the past day and a half. Donaghy was apparently ready to publish a book on the corruption and crookedness that goes on with NBA officiating, before the NBA threatened legal action (they've denied that last part though). Luckily for us, significant passages from the book were leaked onto the internet. You can find it at Deadspin.

My question is what do you make of these accusations? I don't think these are anything new: these kind of rumours have circulated among fans for years (especially fans of the losing teams). But do you think there's any truth to them? Does it change your opinion of the NBA in any way?

 

there are rogue cops and i would imagine there are rogue officials as well. it occurs in any profession and to suggest that the nba officials are above reproach is just naive.

 

I want him to publish this book. I wanna read it.

 

+1 to what deception said. But that being said, I haven't actually read a lot of the excerpts from the book. Does he just say that refs fix the games so the teams will go to game 7 or the flat out fix it so that the refs basically pick the team thats suppose to win the series? By the way the I choose this example cause the excerpt that I did read mentioned stuff about the playoffs.

 

It depended. There were excerpts that detailed refs just screwing around with the game arbitrarily (like all 3 refs wagering on who would call a foul first), specifically targeting players (Iverson after he badmouthed Javie to the press, random "troublemakers"), and blatantly fixing playoff series (he alleges Dick Bavetta acted on subtle hints from the NBA to call fouls to extend series').

I'm kind of torn, to be honest. The stories fit so well with what a lot of people have come to suspect about the NBA. But on the other hand, just because NBA officiating is so bad that this is believable, does it necessarily make it true? I mean you have to consider the source as well. The dude's got nothing left: no reputation, credibility, and a significantly lighter wallet. He has nothing to lose and quite a bit of money to gain with a tell-all book ragging on the NBA. And its not like all these fan conspiracy theories are unknown; most people have heard them at some point or another. Donaghy could very easily have just shifted the facts to fit what the fans/conspiracy theorists wanted to hear.

 

ugh, Donaghy just ruined watching the NBA for me a little bit. How can this not be at the back of my head everytime some bullshit call happens in a close game or any game for that matter.

 

It made me rethink last night's game against the Cavs (the stupid fouls they called on Bargs in the 3rd quarter) and today's game between the Blazers-Nuggets. There's no way that I can prove/disprove those thoughts, but the fact that I actually have them kind of ruins it for me too.