NBA fixing: biggest American sports story in recent memory?

[TheRover]

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On Jan. 15, the Philadelphia 76ers were originally favored to beat the Toronto Raptors by a point. Bets came in so heavily on the Raptors that they eventually were favored to win by a point instead. The Raptors won in a blowout, 104-86.

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This is not a big line move at all. It would be interesting to see the rest of line moves they refer to and what their source is for looking them up.

Also, I disagree that Italian football has recovered gracefully from anything.

[J.A.Sucker]

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I'm only really getting caught up on this right now... lot to digest. My buddy jokingly suggested we mount a class-action suit against the NBA (we're both season ticket holders and have been for a while). Haha who knows, maybe it will come to that. Sounds like this coming week will be very revealing, especially if Donaghy names names. So yeah, hard to judge how big this story is til we get more facts.

This is from Sheridan's recent blog post:

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1. How big is this scandal?

The New York Daily News reported Sunday that federal authorities believe Donaghy will cooperate with investigators and possibly name other officials or players involved in the scandal. Stern has already come out publicly and said that Donaghy was the one and only referee under suspicion of affecting the outcome of games he officiated, but if the opposite is true and even more referees are involved, Stern's credibility will take another enormous hit. The Daily News said Donaghy has hired former federal prosecutor John Lauro, who specializes in representing whistleblowers, as his defense attorney.

2. When was the NBA informed that Donaghy was under investigation by the FBI?

The Denver Post reported Sunday that the answer to that question is January, which, if true, would mean the NBA allowed Donaghy to continue refereeing games, including playoff games, despite knowing he might be crooked. Who in the league office signed off on that?

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Also:

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Also, The Post reported that NBA officials knew that Donaghy was gambling on football and ordered him to stop.

Further, the New York Times reported Sunday that Donaghy refereed in 11 games after Jan. 1, 2007, in which the consensus Las Vegas line moved 2 points or more. The team on which bettors wagered heavily enough to move the line that far won 7 of those 11 games. On Jan. 15, the Philadelphia 76ers were originally favored to beat the Toronto Raptors by a point. Bets came in so heavily on the Raptors that they eventually were favored to win by a point instead. The Raptors won in a blowout, 104-86. Two nights later, so much money was bet on the Phoenix Suns against the Houston Rockets that the consensus Las Vegas line, which opened at the Suns favored by 4 ½ points, moved to 8 by tip-off. The Suns won by 9, 100-91.

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Seriously wtf? There's institutional incompetence I get that, but if the above is true this is way beyond that.

-Al

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wow

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If this kind of stuff turns out to be true, then I retract my original statement regarding the "bigness" of this story. This could be enormous (and enormously bad) for the NBA.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Soccer for 3rd place in American sports. Ship it! The Don would never stand for this. Stern, you are a [censored] lawyer you idiot!

[tuq]

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Video Bill Simmons is Referring To

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Hmmm, video makes me angry, but it's not clear how many of those calls were made by Donaghy. At least a couple were made by a different ref, so unless he was in cahoots (who knows anymore) then it's unrelated, probably standard favoring the home team kind of stuff.

Also, you guys seem to be ignoring the poster above who explained how the HOU-PHX line moved so much. T-Mac and/or Yao being late scratches are obviously going to affect the spread.

[prohornblower]

The NBA sucks.

[tuq]

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The NBA sucks.

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Brad Lidge swallows. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

[ThaSaltCracka]

Tuq, you are way to calm about this whole thing.

[FlyWf]

Not that I don't already hate the American sports media establishment with a burning passion, but the relative emphasis they give to Pacman Jones being an [censored]/Barry Bonds allegedly using steroids/Tim Donaghy fixing games for the mob says one hell of a lot about them.

This is the biggest American sports story since Pete Rose. The integrity of the game is actually threatened here, not in the way that fat sportswriters mean when they whine about steroids, but the actual meaning of integrity is in play right now. There was a great bit by one of the second-tier Page 2 guys(Bonami Jones?) where the league was able to come up with a rebuttal to the racial bias in officiating thing in like 2 days but apparently they've had a ref shaving points for the past year without knowing?

[Triumph36]

the reason why this story isn't bigger is because there is no real villain

we have no idea who's at fault here, and we have no larger cause to excoriate for these incidents

[Aloysius]

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Tuq, you are way to calm about this whole thing.

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Seriously... thread needs more Artdogg.

-Al