"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?...... The Shadow knows!"So began the famed radio and pulp fiction drama which debuted in the 1930's. The hero, who's alter egos Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston would chase down heinous criminals that the law was unable to come to terms with and through his power to cloud mens minds, which was described as a form of hypnotism, was able to make himself invisible and in his bone chilling and soul wrenching accusatory voice, often spook his victims into confessing their crimes.
Would that the American judicial system had such compelling means.
From the outset of the referee scandal, the accused, Tim Donaghy, seemed ready to talk and implicate others in his attempt to gain leniency, initially suggesting that up to 20 other referees were involved in some form of gambling, but the only specifics and the real blockbuster came on June 11th of 2008, about 6 weeks before his recent sentencing. Here is an excerpt from ESPN's report on the filing made by Donaghy's attorney in U.S. District Court in New York.
"Referees A, F and G were officiating a playoff series between Teams 5 and 6 in May of 2002. It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew referees A and F to be 'company men,' always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series. Referees A and F heavily favored Team 6. Personal fouls [resulting in obviously injured players] were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees. Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6. Their foul-calling also led to the ejection of two Team 5 players. The referees' favoring of Team 6 led to that team's victory that night, and Team 6 came back from behind to win that series."
Although no teams are specifically named, it is not hard to deduce the game in question. The Lakers-Kings series was the only one that postseason that went seven games, and the officiating in Game 6 was so questionable that consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader called for a formal investigation.
The Lakers attempted 40 free throws to the Kings' 25 in that game, and Los Angeles made 21 of 27 from the line while Sacramento converted 7 of 9 in the fourth quarter alone.
Our guest this week will be Attorney Michael McCann of Sports Law Blog , who specializes in all things related to the legal aspect of sports. His work on his own blog has earned him accolades and he has written on the Donaghy case for Sports Illustrated and his interview with CNN was run throughout the day of Donaghy's sentencing.
We will attempt to make sense of this affair and all it's ramifications.
While Donaghy's sentence was reduced to 15 months for cooperating with authorities, no further investigation has yet led to any other indictments.
More recently, Fox News released Donaghy's telephone transcripts which revealed 137 calls, mostly on game days, to another ref., Jeff Foster, on the same phone he used to call the other two indicted/convicted associates. This revelation has also netted no visible action on the parts of the league or the government.
Is the case closed? Have the league and the prosecutors followed every trail, or is everyone now as happy as Tim Donaghy, who's lawyer announced so, after his sentencing.
Lauro said after the hearing that he was "thrilled'' that Amon had essentially cut Donaghy's prison sentence in half: "We felt that the judge rendered a sentence that was fair, reasonable and, in our view, a victory for the truth.''
Here is the league's curious statement;
"We anticipate that the judge's sentencing decision, together with the changes we have made to our referee operations staff, will enable us to continue with the improvements we are making to our anti-gambling rules, policies and procedures," Stern said Tuesday.
"There is little comfort to be gained from the mandatory prison sentence, especially as it affects Mr. Donaghy's children and their mother, but hopefully the healing process can begin in earnest for all."
Isn't anyone else curious as to the topics of conversation between Donaghy and Foster? Did Donaghy leak those transcripts just prior to sentencing to warn the league to use it's influence to insure the lightest sentence possible, lest those conversations be made public?
To those of use who have had questions for years about the league's influence on how the games are officiated and know for certain that there are special rules for star players and certain very peculiar end game calls/non calls, there are stil many questions to be answered.
"Who knows............?" Indeed!
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Topic: Celtics Stuff Live! Sun. 8-10PM, W/Michael McCann. (Read 1557 times)