Tim Donaghy, corruption at the NBA

 

The NBA definitely needed the classic rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers to revive since many long time fans stopped believing in the outcome of the games due to the corrupt referees scandal that came to the light with an investigation by the FBI involving NBA professional arbiter Tim Donaghy back in July, 2007.

Donaghy is being accused of manipulating games with gambling purposes, he along with his friend James Batista who is the owner of a sports bar in philly and who had some ties with the mob, both arranged mostly games where there was big money involved, and Donaghy received a total of $30,000 in bribes, much less than the $250,000 fine he had to pay for being released from jail.

Now the former referee who worked at the NBA for 13 seasons is facing a charge of 25 years that can be considerably reduced as Donaghy is willing to cooperate with the police in order to unmasked other rotten referees.

Donaghy has even told the FBI that high authorities at the NBA asked referees to fix games so certain series could be played to full 7 matches for ticket sales and TV ratings purposes.

The most controversial of the series involved in the scandal is the one between the Kings and the Lakers back in 2002 which Sacramento was leading 3-2, and then the Lakers came with two straight victories and made it to the NBA finals, Tim Donaghy affirms that the series was manipulated.

This series between Boston and LA has being the most televised since the NBA 2004 finals between the Lakers and the Pistons, so there are certain rumors about some fixes, but nothing is confirmed, and probably we will never know for sure.