13 more refs maybe involved in NBA gambling scandal

http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/sports/BO130486/


7News sports director Joe Amorosino is reporting the following:

BOSTON -- A source tells 7Sports that the gambler at the center of the 2008 NBA betting scandal says 13 referees were involved.

Jimmy "The Sheep" Battista pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transmit wagering information in connection with disgraced NBA official Tim Donaghy and served 15 months in federal prison.

The source also tells 7Sports that Battista claims he has the phone records to prove his contact with these 13 referees.

Donaghy served 15 months in federal prison for providing inside tips on NBA games to a professional gambler in exchange for money.

When the scandal broke in June of 2008, NBA commissioner David Stern called Donaghy a "rogue, isolated criminal."

The source tells 7Sports that Battista says he had a "Big-5" of dependable referees with Tim Donaghy being the "King" as Battista called him, who the gambler says delivered a winning bet 78 percent of the time in games he officiated.

The 7Sports source says that on December 12, 2006, the night before the Celtics played the Philadelphia 76ers, Battista says he met with Donaghy and a mutual high school friend.

On that night, the gambler claims they made a deal which according to Battista involved Donaghy supplying information including injury reports and referee assignments and Battista making the bets.

The source says that according to Battista, the first game the two men bet on together was the Celtics-76ers game the following night -- a game Donaghy officiated and one the Celtics covered with ease.

The Celtics were 1 1/2 point favorites, but with 10 minutes to play in the third quarter, the score was tied.

The Celtics would eventually go on to win by 20 points.

The source says Battista is making these claims as he works to finalize a tell-all book deal.

 

Coming soon to the backpage of ESPN.com...

 

According to my calculations that would make for 14 rogue isolated criminals among the ranks of the 60 or so NBA referees.


David Stern has to hope this is all a fabrication. After all, he hired his security maven to look into everything involving referees a couple of years ago. If the security maven couldn't find 13 bad apples in the bin...

 

Dirty league.

 

I can't even watch it anymore.

 

four billion reasons why this won't be a story on ESPN.

I implore many of you in the industry to give this story it's proper traction. This is one of the biggest travesties we've seen in professional sports in the last 25 years, IMO.

 

And Simmons thought the 70's was bad.

 

Well, ignoring the fact they don't even get the date right for the sixers-Celtics game - it was the 13th, not the 12th - it truly is shocking that a team that was 5-16 got outscored by 20 points over the final 22 minutes of the game. That's never happened before in the NBA, except in rigged games, especially to a team that lost its ninth straight game that night.

And it truly was a travesty, as the Celtics shot an astounding 34 free throws compared to...34 for the Sixers. The refs also put their hands up on defense, causing the Sixers to go 0 for 5 from 3-point land, while the refs directed the Celtics into making six 3s.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200612130PHI.html

http://www.vegasinsider.com/nba/scoreboard/recaps/celtics-@-76ers.cfm/date/12-13-06

More of the same. Where's the real proof again, other than in "tell-all" books? Let's see the phone records and not just base it on the fact a horrendous NBA team lost by 20 points.

 

Yep. WWL bet a lot of money on something that looks, acts and smells like a garbage scow. Probably no coincidence that more and more dirt is also coming out regarding European soccer, which has smelled to high heaven for decades, as a lot of people whistled past the graveyard.

 

Nice.....never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

 

I think even conspiracy theorists like myself would be stunned at what things the NBA has done since David Stern took over.

 

This will all come out much like the steroid scandal did in baseball. Some of the principals will start writing books that appear in places other than just Deadspin.

I'd bet a lot of money that within the next decade the NBA will be exposed for the fraud that it is.