NBA fixing: biggest American sports story in recent memory?

[kidcolin]

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. I always listen to the previous night's podcast on my morning commute. I was looking forward to this week due to this issue and Sergio completely blowing it.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Wow a ZJ joke in Sporting Events [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

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that was my first one ever!

[HDPM]

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Al -

Also Stern directly said that Donaghy 100% for sure reffed games he bet on.

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Hm - so I guess it's possible that Donaghy was able to remain an impartial official on games he bet on. Maybe he's that good a ref? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Haha well, my gripe is not a critical issue, I just find myself incredibly annoyed when Stern (or any other bureaucrat / politician) clings to ridiculous distinctions in the face of common sense.

Also, there are just (as has been discussed alot) too many subtle, but impactful ways a ref can handle a game to help nudge a desired outcome.

Any game Donaghy bet on and reffed should be played over, imo.

(Although, in all seriousness, based on the single fact that Donaghy bet on games he reffed, I think the games are tainted enough that there is cause to think about removing them from the official record.)

-Al

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I thought he did well enough not making a huge distinction, IIRC he said that if you bet a game you are reffing you lose any benefit of any doubt. I didn't take him to be trying to draw too fine a distinction.

Overall I thought Stern did a good a job at the press conference. Obviously he has to do his best to help the NBA, he is supposed to be an advocate. So I imagine some will disagree or problems with procedures will be discovered through the investigation etc... But as far as Stern's handling of the press conference, well, I don't think the NBA owners would trade for Selig.

[Aloysius]

HDPM - it's a pet peeve of mine, so it's possible I was overly sensitive to Stern's "distinction". Also:

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IIRC he said that if you bet a game you are reffing you lose any benefit of any doubt.

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Don't recall hearing that. Either way, I've actually always been a Stern fan (though the Suns suspensions soured me on him a bit), and figured he would do a fine job handling this for now. It really is out of the NBA's hands though I think. At this point what the Feds turn up, and what Donaghy spills, will be the story for a while.

I do hope though, that the NBA's response to this whole debacle is fair to the fans (e.g. considering throwing out games that Donaghy reffed and bet on, things like that).

-Al

[tuq]

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I do hope though, that the NBA's response to this whole debacle is fair to the fans (e.g. considering throwing out games that Donaghy reffed and bet on, things like that).

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I don't know how this could be done in any practical sense, unless it was some sort of meaningless token gesture. I mean yeah, NBA in August would be awesome, let's get the Suns and Spurs back on the court to replay game three, "LOL".

Anyway, if I'm reading this right the NBA has limited culpability: they didn't know about it until after the Finals, rather than earlier reports which implied they know about him earlier this year yet still plugged him into playoff games. The only thing that leaves them on the hook for is perhaps an insufficient review policy w/r/t reffing patterns. So their big challenge is to distance themselves as far from this guy as possible for PR reasons.

[mason55]

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The only thing that leaves them on the hook for is perhaps an insufficient review policy w/r/t reffing patterns. So their big challenge is to distance themselves as far from this guy as possible for PR reasons.

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Stern spent quite a bit of time in the press conference talking about the referreeing grading policy and how they audit the graders. He said that this year they even audited the auditors.

[Aloysius]

Tup - yeah, there is no real practical solution for tainted games. I just wonder if it will become part of the larger conversation wrt being part of the official record.

-Al

[CarlSpackler]

I have read and heard rumors that Donaghy is going to take other people down with him. Those other people are reportedly other refs and PLAYERS. I haven't seen or read any names associated with these rumors. Even after hearing this, I simply cannont fathom any NBA players actually being involved in this. The guys obv. got major anger management issues, so I wouldn't put it past him to falsely name players he's had problems with in the past as a retalitory measure. I wouldn't be surprised at all if one or more other refs were involved to some level in this scandal.

To put in perspective how big and crazy this story is, it is now not only in the involved mob guys' best interests, but the NBA's best interests as well, that somebody whacks Donaghy before he is arrested. Last I heard, he is supposed to be arrested on Thursday (don't know how reliable this info is).

[tuq]

mason,

With all the posting in ATF, OOT, and here, you are making it extremely difficult for me to catch you in post count. I may have to take up Werewolf.

Interesting that it's that thorough. From what I've read the NFL puts their officiating under way more of a microscope than the NBA does.

None of this is shocking though, I guess, when the most exploitable people - the referees, many of whom probably have second jobs and are the lowest paid people on the court by far - are also the most influential as it pertains to the outcome. I guess the biggest surprise is that it didn't happen sooner (that we know of).

[Artdogg]

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The only thing that leaves them on the hook for is perhaps an insufficient review policy w/r/t reffing patterns. So their big challenge is to distance themselves as far from this guy as possible for PR reasons.

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Stern spent quite a bit of time in the press conference talking about the referreeing grading policy and how they audit the graders. He said that this year they even audited the auditors.

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But who audits the auditors of the auditors?