There have been some big scandals in the NBA over referees gambling over the past few tears. If it would have been detected earlier it easily could have meant that different teams would have made it to the finals and won a championship, therefore this has been a huge controversy.

Tim Donaghy was caught a couple years ago for gambling, although much earlier than around 2003, his gambling and basketball betting practices began. Around this time, he began placing general bets but by December of 2006 he was releasing sensitive information to gamblers.

Donaghy got $2000 – $5000 for every bet he guaranteed with his calls and he and his buddy Jimmy Battista began a gambling strategy. He was convicted and was released on a $250,000 bond and faced up to 25 years in prison if the maximum charges were prosecuted. He was responsible for paying a $500,000 fine to the NBA as well as $30,000 to the government along with that. This event rocked the entire league.

To try and make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again, Commissioner Stern and the league are taking precautions. Many referees of different sports are willing to throw away their integrity for a few extra bucks, if the money is worth the risk.

Every sports fan hope that referees will call game from an unbiased perspective and let athletes compete at the highest level without playing favorites. Tim Donaghy scandal opened a lot of people’s eyes to the shortcomings of men in power.

Donaghy, along with Battista spent around 15 months in prison as they were pleaded guilty to two felony charges. It was suspected that 13 other referees were involved in the scandal, while these were the only two to be convicted and sentenced to jail time.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 4:55 am and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.