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How Former Ref Tim Donaghy Conspired to Fix NBA Games

166 points by laurex 8y ago

jds375 8y ago
I would love to get more people's opinions on if this is still happening in the NBA and to what extent. Naturally, I would assume that this rarely happens still if ever. Modern methods of oversight and statistical methods ought to be enough to ensure such things don’t happen. The NBA has a vested interest in maintaining the legitimacy of the league and thus are naturally inclined to root out any kind of cheating or illicit betting. Could you imagine if it got out that this was still happening and a more intense, modern investigation happened? It could destroy the NBA, which is something I’m sure the NBA is working hard to make sure doesn’t happen. However, at least on reddit’s r/nba it seems a common opinion (at least according to upvoted responses) that much of this is still going on. Obviously that’s not saying much, but it makes me wonder… Do I have it wrong? If so why? And likewise, if so what’s the point in watching these sports?
- jsight 8y ago
  I wonder the same thing at times when strange things happen in the NFL. How much could betting play a role? And how can it be possible that this doesn't happen, when there is SO much potential for money to be made?
  - swasheck 8y ago
    it's sad because what used to be an escape from real life for me (play, and watching play) has become more of a frustration and reminder of adult problems, so i now choose to abstain from that.
- tcoff91 8y ago
  This reddit thread definitely has me suspicious about current referee Scott Foster. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/asciqn/serious_can_we_have_a_discussion_about_scott/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/asciqn/serious_can_we_...
  - rurban 8y ago
    Scott Foster is the worst referee for more than a decade. Even in 2007 when the absurd number of phonecalls with Donaghy came out and most players protested on his absurd calling nothing happened. The NBA really needs those refs to fix games for the most important markets (LA, NY, Chicago).
- myko 8y ago
  The NBA has seemed rigged for years. Closer to WWE than a true competition.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  There’s so much money in sports betting now, there’s no way that there isn’t a ton of corrupt behavior going on. Allowing widespread legit betting is asking for less than honest behavior. Even a single player throwing a few shots or missing/hitting a metric can make people money. The leagues can also not notice things that encourage behavior that fans like. Baseball players on steroids attracted a lot of buzz in the 90s and early 2000s.
  - jds375 8y ago
    It's true there's a lot of money in sports betting, but there is even more money in the NBA (TV deals, player salaries, team valuations, etc). That larger sum of money would be existentially threatened by continued corruption within the league due to sports betting. Thus, one would think that more money would go towards stopping any corruption. I suppose that doesn't mean there wouldn't be any corruption, but it seems like there would certainly be less?
    - Spooky23 8y ago
      People aren’t rational, and many people are hooked on gambling. Look at Pete Rose as an example.
- clairity 8y ago
  i've been watching more nba lately and the officiating seems so arbitrary that it's making me skeptical that statistical analysis can isolate fraud from poor officiating. like that kevin durant "save" against houston where he was lounging in the first row for what seemed like several minutes beforehand. or nearly every 4-point-play that james harden gets, or lebron's inability to travel. or the lack of foul calls for non-stars like josh hart (lakers). i play rec ball and our officiating is bad too, but it seems worse in the nba despite having professional refs (granted, it's a faster and more powerful game, but their refs are supposed to be the best).
- n8henry 8y ago
  It doesn't seem to be happening as much. Last year's championship was a 4 game sweep by the Warriors. Donaghy used to bet on playoff series knowing that the league wanted the refs to do what they could to extend the series to 7 games. One notable example is the 2002 series between the Lakers and Kings.
- paulcole 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure Haralabob Voulgaris made quite a bit of money by finding refs who (presumably subconsciously) called certain games in certain ways that the oddsmakers weren't yet accounting for. Virtually nobody besides successful gamblers and actual statisticians has any insight into what is actually going on. There's just too much noise and 99.9% of people aren't analyzing enough data to make any sense of it, assuming they're analyzing any at all and not just screaming when a call goes against them.
- Gene_Parmesan 8y ago
  I firmly believe that every major professional sports league is willing to twist some knobs and push some buttons in order to ensure/avoid certain outcomes which might be extremely beneficial/damaging to their business. Something as simple as fixing a draft lottery in advance, even just for the top player to be drafted, can have a huge impact on growing or shrinking certain teams' fanbases/markets. You could probably accomplish it with only a few people aware -- wouldn't need the entire league to be in cahoots -- and it's not really something like matchfixing. And I'm sure that referees in most leagues are given directives about which players to favor, etc. In hockey, at least, it's really apparent that the superstars tend to get treated with kid gloves by the refs. Having said that, I firmly do not believe what some others do, that entire sports are rigged a la pro wrestling. I think the leagues will, on rare occasion, step in to protect their investments. But I don't think someone's sitting behind the scenes writing out the storylines in advance.
harry8 8y ago
The nba clearly wants the refs to be bent, it's a requirement. They actively encourage seeing it the home teams way, favouring the big stars and call it to keep it close as this is all good for marketing. The question is not whether the refs are bent it's merely who is paying them to be so. I doubt anyone thinks the nba refs honestly try to enforce the rules with an even hand. Do any adults think this? NBA is a mix of sport and Pro wrestling, which seems a shame given the immense skill levels and training on display.
- genzoman 8y ago
  This is true in all professional sport. After all, it's entertainment, a movie which can change its ending. If something is on TV, it's amenable to be gamed.
  - justtopost 8y ago
    Completely true. I challenge a downvoter to reply with any pro sport without confirmed fixing, PED use, and predatory hiring.
    - praneshp 8y ago
      > I challenge a downvoter to reply with any pro sport without confirmed fixing, PED use, and predatory hiring. That's not the point your parent comment made. Your statement should be "I challenge a downvoter to reply with any pro sport that wants non-bent refs"
- slg 8y ago
  > They actively encourage seeing it the home teams way I can't speak to the rest of your comment, but this might not be "actively encouraged" since it is universal in every sport. Every single study that I have seen on sports refs shows an inherent bias in favor of the home team. It is just human nature for your actions to be subconsciously swayed by how you know the 10,000+ people around you will react. This is one of the many things that makes up home field advantage in sports.
daenz 8y ago
Bill Burr has an excellent high-level overview of gambling in the NBA and how refs influence it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVgHXF6V9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVgHXF6V9A
hnrodey 8y ago
This story is years old - why is it back the news? What changed? The publish date on the article is February 19th, 2019.
- agarden 8y ago
  The author put two years of work into reporting it. A lot more detail and strong evidence that contrary to what was claimed 12 years ago, Tim Donaghy was throwing games.
  - DigiMortal 8y ago
    100% worthwhile to be in the news. The NBA I think is mostly alright. I wonder if James gets the Lakers into the playoffs, its LEBRON JAMES
- geephroh 8y ago
  I think the article makes a pretty persuasive argument for the relevance: "It matters all the more now. On May 14 of last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that had forbidden states from legalizing sports gambling within their own borders. It's widely believed that the ruling will lead to a lifting of the interstate prohibition on sports betting, which, in turn, would give rise to a massive increase in the money wagered on American sports. At the same time, the NBA -- which once balked at gambling -- has now openly embraced legalized sports betting more than any other U.S. pro sports league. In 2014, commissioner Adam Silver penned an op-ed in The New York Times advocating for legalization. In July of 2018, he announced a multiyear deal for MGM Resorts to be the 'official gaming partner of the NBA.'"
- doodliego 8y ago
  The NBA and the disgraced ref maintained that he bet on his own games, but did not fix outcomes. The ESPN article argues otherwise through statistical analysis of foul calls as well as investigative reporting with the other gamblers and bookies in Donegha's circle of corruption. Based on their statements, it's rather conclusive that he skillfully manipulated games, although he couldn't control every outcome. The article also highlights an unfortunate situation where Donaghy told the FBI about other crooked refs, but the FBI briefed NBA commissioner David Stern about their investigation early on, while it was still ongoing. The investigation was then leaked to the press (strongly implying Stern did it). This made it impossible for Donaghy to wear a wire since he was now disgraced and fired from his job, and the NBA maintained that Donaghy's was an isolated incident of one rogue ref placing bets but not affecting games. That's my summary of their reporting anyway. I found it persuasive.
chinesegoldfarm 8y ago
Same thing happened with Soccer Match fixing, you can read all about in Declan Hill's book called The Fix
juddlyon 8y ago
This is a messed up story, but the idea that the NBA is rigged is patently ridiculous. The refs are humans and are biased to crowd noise, and you can bet it harder to stand up to LeBron James screaming at you than Quinn Cook. What evidence is there that they "actively encourage seeing it the home teams way?" What if a huge star is on the road, what's the call there? Of course they want the bigger media markets to do well and competitive gameplay. Do you think they're rigging it so Milwaukee or Portland is good? What about the 20 year run of the Spurs?
- Zimahl 8y ago
  I'm with you. If the NBA was rigged, wouldn't the Knicks not be the tire fire they've been for the last, what, 30+ years?
- kodablah 8y ago
  You're arguing against it being absolutely rigged when what most people mean is minorly rigged here and there. You're reading an article about the rigging of games, yet you might have made this same comment in 2006. Unfortunately with the state of basketball, the problem is that a game can't be reviewed for a reasonably objective per-play foul count to determine accuracy. So you get to easily say "where's the evidence of subjective thing being done for reason X" and never get an answer, same as you could have about Donaghy until he was busted.
- Nelson69 8y ago
  He wasn't turning donkeys into race horses. He was tampering with the spread. Just calling or not calling traveling, say 3 or 4 times and calling or not calling charging a couple times and you're easily looking at nearly a 10point swing. Lebron doesn't have to lose, just not win by 15 points...
  - cladari 8y ago
    Donaghy told his handler (allegedly) that he could swing a game by 6 points, anything more and it would be too obvious.
larrik 8y ago
I feel like dropping the "How" from the title makes it sound far less interesting than it is.
- indigodaddy 8y ago
  "How" did that happen?
- dang 8y ago
  Fair enough. Have a how. (Most leading 'hows' are worth dropping, I can tell you, having looked at a lot of data before writing the code to decapitate them.)
throwaway06871 8y ago
I worked for a tech company in the professional sports scene. A well known NBA official drunkenly provided details on how this stuff goes down and more importantly how critical it is for NBA's longevity as entertainment. He mentioned that most other sports are rigged, but NBA is the worst.
mxcrossb 8y ago
ESPN seemed to work hard to manipulate those statistics. I see the old “well the most clear statistical test said there was a 23% chance of it being random, but then when you exclude a bunch of games...”
kodablah 8y ago
If the calls are so subjective that one can't tell the difference between a ref accidentally being way off and on purpose being way off, then maybe your sport/rules are the problem when being way off is either excusable or indeterminable. (in the NBA and some other sports, you can basically call a foul every play)
- metabagel 8y ago
  Game 3 of the NBA Finals in 2008 was pretty darn obvious. Anyone who watched that game had to have known that the game was fixed. http://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401 http://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401 “The Lakers attempted 40 free throws to the Kings' 25 in that game, and Los Angeles made 21 of 27 from the line while Sacramento converted 7 of 9 in the fourth quarter alone. In addition, a foul was called against Mike Bibby of the Kings after he was shoved and elbowed by Kobe Bryant, denying the Kings an opportunity to try for a tying basket. Also in that game, Kings centers Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard fouled out, and Kings coach Rick Adelman was highly critical of the officiating afterward.” It’s actually worse than that. Bryant drove into Bibby, committing an obvious offensive foul with an elbow to the nose which gave Bibby a nosebleed. Bibby was called for a personal foul for his nose fouling Kobe in the elbow.
  - paultannenbaum 8y ago
    I think you mean 2002 not 2008. And yeah that game sure did seem skewed in the lakers favor.
  - tabtab 8y ago
    I would like to see a more objective scoring. Lopsided foul ratios are not solid evidence of bias by themselves. Teams play different styles and sometimes have bad defensive nights. Nor is a single bad call evidence of bias, such as the nosebleed incident. An example of a good evaluation would be several professional referees, not employed by the NBA, observe the videos of that game from different angles, and score the accuracy and fairness of each call and potential non-call, including which referee made the call and/or was closest. I don't wish to accuse people of conspiracies without strong and detailed evidence. And, too many teams habitually blame the refs for bad results to deflect their own shortcomings as a team. I've heard "wolf" far too many times. There is human error and thus randomness in referee calls. But as they say, luck favors the prepared. If you don't want bad calls deciding the game, then get good enough to have the margin of error in your favor.
Gpetrium 8y ago
It is fascinating to see the crowd mentality that comes from sports team, political groups and other areas. Rationally speaking, it is entirely possible for at least some games to be rigged from time to time. It does not mean that the whole game has to be rigged, just parts of them. I think someone who is emotionally invested in a team will find it substantially harder to make objective assessment of a game that involves their team or a team they have cognitive bias towards.
epynonymous 8y ago
this is exactly the reason why i feel the nba getting into gambling is such a problem, it’s true that gambling on the nba happened before the nba decided to get involved, but i dont see how the nba can totally regulate match fixing.
epynonymous 8y ago
fyi, i thought about creating a product to automate officiating of sports, but it’s quite complicated to get right, especially for extremely faced fast paced sports, like basketball, you basically need to take video of different angles and process that frame by frame. sportsvu was technology that is able to track things like whether the shooter is behind or on the three point line, but hasnt gotten to the point where it can monitor fouls and such.
gowld 8y ago
Wikipedia coverage, if ESPN's story is too much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_NBA_betting_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_NBA_betting_scandal
RickJWagner 8y ago
Yet another reason not to gamble.
bfrog 8y ago
I'm guessing most games are won or lost by the ref than by the players. A disheartening thought.
Agustus 8y ago
The NBA is in desperate need of a complete overhaul. We have this article that talks about the refs not making the sport fair. Franchise players are given leeway that would not be shown on a peewee court. And then this is complemented by last year’s article about which plays the players say they are actually going to participate in. The NBA has become an entire Randy Moss organization: I will play when I want.
ctime 8y ago
2006 Western Conf semi finals with Suns/Spurs was pretty much the last straw for me and last time for me actually taking the game serious. Wasnt at all surprised to find out later that Donaghy made money off such a shitty performance. Such a shame as Nash never won a title and this year was arguably had his best chance. The sort of reckless officisting caused a ton of damage both physicaly and mentally to the Suns (as it encourages benifiting teams to be dangerously aggressive and can mentally breaks down the opposing teams, leading to technicalities) This Youtube vid has a bit of the horror: https://youtu.be/fvkKdXLwt0U https://youtu.be/fvkKdXLwt0U
AtlasBarfed 8y ago
I remember the year Donaghy was caught. That was a bizarre playoffs where every single series seemed to be going 7 games, with home teams basically never losing. Then Donaghy story explodes right before the playoffs, and suddenly the finals were over in 5 or 6 games and the entire appearance of the games changed. On top of the suspicious "stolen" playoff series with Sacramento and Miami and Phoenix in previous years. I am convinced Donaghy was just side betting manipulation orders that were coming down from David Stern. Once caught, the league had to stop manipulating the refereeing and Donaghy became the scapegoat.

166 points by laurex 8y ago

I would love to get more people's opinions on if this is still happening in the NBA and to what extent. Naturally, I would assume that this rarely happens still if ever. Modern methods of oversight and statistical methods ought to be enough to ensure such things don’t happen. The NBA has a vested interest in maintaining the legitimacy of the league and thus are naturally inclined to root out any kind of cheating or illicit betting. Could you imagine if it got out that this was still happening and a more intense, modern investigation happened? It could destroy the NBA, which is something I’m sure the NBA is working hard to make sure doesn’t happen. However, at least on reddit’s r/nba it seems a common opinion (at least according to upvoted responses) that much of this is still going on. Obviously that’s not saying much, but it makes me wonder… Do I have it wrong? If so why? And likewise, if so what’s the point in watching these sports?

jsight 8y ago
I wonder the same thing at times when strange things happen in the NFL. How much could betting play a role? And how can it be possible that this doesn't happen, when there is SO much potential for money to be made?
- swasheck 8y ago
  it's sad because what used to be an escape from real life for me (play, and watching play) has become more of a frustration and reminder of adult problems, so i now choose to abstain from that.
tcoff91 8y ago
This reddit thread definitely has me suspicious about current referee Scott Foster. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/asciqn/serious_can_we_have_a_discussion_about_scott/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/asciqn/serious_can_we_...
- rurban 8y ago
  Scott Foster is the worst referee for more than a decade. Even in 2007 when the absurd number of phonecalls with Donaghy came out and most players protested on his absurd calling nothing happened. The NBA really needs those refs to fix games for the most important markets (LA, NY, Chicago).
myko 8y ago
The NBA has seemed rigged for years. Closer to WWE than a true competition.
Spooky23 8y ago
There’s so much money in sports betting now, there’s no way that there isn’t a ton of corrupt behavior going on. Allowing widespread legit betting is asking for less than honest behavior. Even a single player throwing a few shots or missing/hitting a metric can make people money. The leagues can also not notice things that encourage behavior that fans like. Baseball players on steroids attracted a lot of buzz in the 90s and early 2000s.
- jds375 8y ago
  It's true there's a lot of money in sports betting, but there is even more money in the NBA (TV deals, player salaries, team valuations, etc). That larger sum of money would be existentially threatened by continued corruption within the league due to sports betting. Thus, one would think that more money would go towards stopping any corruption. I suppose that doesn't mean there wouldn't be any corruption, but it seems like there would certainly be less?
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    People aren’t rational, and many people are hooked on gambling. Look at Pete Rose as an example.
clairity 8y ago
i've been watching more nba lately and the officiating seems so arbitrary that it's making me skeptical that statistical analysis can isolate fraud from poor officiating. like that kevin durant "save" against houston where he was lounging in the first row for what seemed like several minutes beforehand. or nearly every 4-point-play that james harden gets, or lebron's inability to travel. or the lack of foul calls for non-stars like josh hart (lakers). i play rec ball and our officiating is bad too, but it seems worse in the nba despite having professional refs (granted, it's a faster and more powerful game, but their refs are supposed to be the best).
n8henry 8y ago
It doesn't seem to be happening as much. Last year's championship was a 4 game sweep by the Warriors. Donaghy used to bet on playoff series knowing that the league wanted the refs to do what they could to extend the series to 7 games. One notable example is the 2002 series between the Lakers and Kings.
paulcole 8y ago
I'm pretty sure Haralabob Voulgaris made quite a bit of money by finding refs who (presumably subconsciously) called certain games in certain ways that the oddsmakers weren't yet accounting for. Virtually nobody besides successful gamblers and actual statisticians has any insight into what is actually going on. There's just too much noise and 99.9% of people aren't analyzing enough data to make any sense of it, assuming they're analyzing any at all and not just screaming when a call goes against them.
Gene_Parmesan 8y ago
I firmly believe that every major professional sports league is willing to twist some knobs and push some buttons in order to ensure/avoid certain outcomes which might be extremely beneficial/damaging to their business. Something as simple as fixing a draft lottery in advance, even just for the top player to be drafted, can have a huge impact on growing or shrinking certain teams' fanbases/markets. You could probably accomplish it with only a few people aware -- wouldn't need the entire league to be in cahoots -- and it's not really something like matchfixing. And I'm sure that referees in most leagues are given directives about which players to favor, etc. In hockey, at least, it's really apparent that the superstars tend to get treated with kid gloves by the refs. Having said that, I firmly do not believe what some others do, that entire sports are rigged a la pro wrestling. I think the leagues will, on rare occasion, step in to protect their investments. But I don't think someone's sitting behind the scenes writing out the storylines in advance.

harry8 8y ago

The nba clearly wants the refs to be bent, it's a requirement. They actively encourage seeing it the home teams way, favouring the big stars and call it to keep it close as this is all good for marketing. The question is not whether the refs are bent it's merely who is paying them to be so. I doubt anyone thinks the nba refs honestly try to enforce the rules with an even hand. Do any adults think this? NBA is a mix of sport and Pro wrestling, which seems a shame given the immense skill levels and training on display.

genzoman 8y ago
This is true in all professional sport. After all, it's entertainment, a movie which can change its ending. If something is on TV, it's amenable to be gamed.
- justtopost 8y ago
  Completely true. I challenge a downvoter to reply with any pro sport without confirmed fixing, PED use, and predatory hiring.
  - praneshp 8y ago
    > I challenge a downvoter to reply with any pro sport without confirmed fixing, PED use, and predatory hiring. That's not the point your parent comment made. Your statement should be "I challenge a downvoter to reply with any pro sport that wants non-bent refs"
slg 8y ago
> They actively encourage seeing it the home teams way I can't speak to the rest of your comment, but this might not be "actively encouraged" since it is universal in every sport. Every single study that I have seen on sports refs shows an inherent bias in favor of the home team. It is just human nature for your actions to be subconsciously swayed by how you know the 10,000+ people around you will react. This is one of the many things that makes up home field advantage in sports.

daenz 8y ago

Bill Burr has an excellent high-level overview of gambling in the NBA and how refs influence it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVgHXF6V9A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVgHXF6V9A

hnrodey 8y ago

This story is years old - why is it back the news? What changed? The publish date on the article is February 19th, 2019.

agarden 8y ago
The author put two years of work into reporting it. A lot more detail and strong evidence that contrary to what was claimed 12 years ago, Tim Donaghy was throwing games.
- DigiMortal 8y ago
  100% worthwhile to be in the news. The NBA I think is mostly alright. I wonder if James gets the Lakers into the playoffs, its LEBRON JAMES
geephroh 8y ago
I think the article makes a pretty persuasive argument for the relevance: "It matters all the more now. On May 14 of last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that had forbidden states from legalizing sports gambling within their own borders. It's widely believed that the ruling will lead to a lifting of the interstate prohibition on sports betting, which, in turn, would give rise to a massive increase in the money wagered on American sports. At the same time, the NBA -- which once balked at gambling -- has now openly embraced legalized sports betting more than any other U.S. pro sports league. In 2014, commissioner Adam Silver penned an op-ed in The New York Times advocating for legalization. In July of 2018, he announced a multiyear deal for MGM Resorts to be the 'official gaming partner of the NBA.'"
doodliego 8y ago
The NBA and the disgraced ref maintained that he bet on his own games, but did not fix outcomes. The ESPN article argues otherwise through statistical analysis of foul calls as well as investigative reporting with the other gamblers and bookies in Donegha's circle of corruption. Based on their statements, it's rather conclusive that he skillfully manipulated games, although he couldn't control every outcome. The article also highlights an unfortunate situation where Donaghy told the FBI about other crooked refs, but the FBI briefed NBA commissioner David Stern about their investigation early on, while it was still ongoing. The investigation was then leaked to the press (strongly implying Stern did it). This made it impossible for Donaghy to wear a wire since he was now disgraced and fired from his job, and the NBA maintained that Donaghy's was an isolated incident of one rogue ref placing bets but not affecting games. That's my summary of their reporting anyway. I found it persuasive.

chinesegoldfarm 8y ago

Same thing happened with Soccer Match fixing, you can read all about in Declan Hill's book called The Fix

juddlyon 8y ago

This is a messed up story, but the idea that the NBA is rigged is patently ridiculous. The refs are humans and are biased to crowd noise, and you can bet it harder to stand up to LeBron James screaming at you than Quinn Cook. What evidence is there that they "actively encourage seeing it the home teams way?" What if a huge star is on the road, what's the call there? Of course they want the bigger media markets to do well and competitive gameplay. Do you think they're rigging it so Milwaukee or Portland is good? What about the 20 year run of the Spurs?

Zimahl 8y ago
I'm with you. If the NBA was rigged, wouldn't the Knicks not be the tire fire they've been for the last, what, 30+ years?
kodablah 8y ago
You're arguing against it being absolutely rigged when what most people mean is minorly rigged here and there. You're reading an article about the rigging of games, yet you might have made this same comment in 2006. Unfortunately with the state of basketball, the problem is that a game can't be reviewed for a reasonably objective per-play foul count to determine accuracy. So you get to easily say "where's the evidence of subjective thing being done for reason X" and never get an answer, same as you could have about Donaghy until he was busted.
Nelson69 8y ago
He wasn't turning donkeys into race horses. He was tampering with the spread. Just calling or not calling traveling, say 3 or 4 times and calling or not calling charging a couple times and you're easily looking at nearly a 10point swing. Lebron doesn't have to lose, just not win by 15 points...
- cladari 8y ago
  Donaghy told his handler (allegedly) that he could swing a game by 6 points, anything more and it would be too obvious.

larrik 8y ago

I feel like dropping the "How" from the title makes it sound far less interesting than it is.

indigodaddy 8y ago
"How" did that happen?
dang 8y ago
Fair enough. Have a how. (Most leading 'hows' are worth dropping, I can tell you, having looked at a lot of data before writing the code to decapitate them.)

throwaway06871 8y ago

I worked for a tech company in the professional sports scene. A well known NBA official drunkenly provided details on how this stuff goes down and more importantly how critical it is for NBA's longevity as entertainment. He mentioned that most other sports are rigged, but NBA is the worst.

mxcrossb 8y ago

ESPN seemed to work hard to manipulate those statistics. I see the old “well the most clear statistical test said there was a 23% chance of it being random, but then when you exclude a bunch of games...”

kodablah 8y ago

If the calls are so subjective that one can't tell the difference between a ref accidentally being way off and on purpose being way off, then maybe your sport/rules are the problem when being way off is either excusable or indeterminable. (in the NBA and some other sports, you can basically call a foul every play)

metabagel 8y ago
Game 3 of the NBA Finals in 2008 was pretty darn obvious. Anyone who watched that game had to have known that the game was fixed. http://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401 http://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=3436401 “The Lakers attempted 40 free throws to the Kings' 25 in that game, and Los Angeles made 21 of 27 from the line while Sacramento converted 7 of 9 in the fourth quarter alone. In addition, a foul was called against Mike Bibby of the Kings after he was shoved and elbowed by Kobe Bryant, denying the Kings an opportunity to try for a tying basket. Also in that game, Kings centers Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard fouled out, and Kings coach Rick Adelman was highly critical of the officiating afterward.” It’s actually worse than that. Bryant drove into Bibby, committing an obvious offensive foul with an elbow to the nose which gave Bibby a nosebleed. Bibby was called for a personal foul for his nose fouling Kobe in the elbow.
- paultannenbaum 8y ago
  I think you mean 2002 not 2008. And yeah that game sure did seem skewed in the lakers favor.
- tabtab 8y ago
  I would like to see a more objective scoring. Lopsided foul ratios are not solid evidence of bias by themselves. Teams play different styles and sometimes have bad defensive nights. Nor is a single bad call evidence of bias, such as the nosebleed incident. An example of a good evaluation would be several professional referees, not employed by the NBA, observe the videos of that game from different angles, and score the accuracy and fairness of each call and potential non-call, including which referee made the call and/or was closest. I don't wish to accuse people of conspiracies without strong and detailed evidence. And, too many teams habitually blame the refs for bad results to deflect their own shortcomings as a team. I've heard "wolf" far too many times. There is human error and thus randomness in referee calls. But as they say, luck favors the prepared. If you don't want bad calls deciding the game, then get good enough to have the margin of error in your favor.

Gpetrium 8y ago

It is fascinating to see the crowd mentality that comes from sports team, political groups and other areas. Rationally speaking, it is entirely possible for at least some games to be rigged from time to time. It does not mean that the whole game has to be rigged, just parts of them. I think someone who is emotionally invested in a team will find it substantially harder to make objective assessment of a game that involves their team or a team they have cognitive bias towards.

epynonymous 8y ago

this is exactly the reason why i feel the nba getting into gambling is such a problem, it’s true that gambling on the nba happened before the nba decided to get involved, but i dont see how the nba can totally regulate match fixing.

epynonymous 8y ago

fyi, i thought about creating a product to automate officiating of sports, but it’s quite complicated to get right, especially for extremely faced fast paced sports, like basketball, you basically need to take video of different angles and process that frame by frame. sportsvu was technology that is able to track things like whether the shooter is behind or on the three point line, but hasnt gotten to the point where it can monitor fouls and such.

gowld 8y ago

Wikipedia coverage, if ESPN's story is too much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_NBA_betting_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_NBA_betting_scandal

RickJWagner 8y ago

Yet another reason not to gamble.

bfrog 8y ago

I'm guessing most games are won or lost by the ref than by the players. A disheartening thought.

Agustus 8y ago

The NBA is in desperate need of a complete overhaul. We have this article that talks about the refs not making the sport fair. Franchise players are given leeway that would not be shown on a peewee court. And then this is complemented by last year’s article about which plays the players say they are actually going to participate in. The NBA has become an entire Randy Moss organization: I will play when I want.

ctime 8y ago

2006 Western Conf semi finals with Suns/Spurs was pretty much the last straw for me and last time for me actually taking the game serious. Wasnt at all surprised to find out later that Donaghy made money off such a shitty performance. Such a shame as Nash never won a title and this year was arguably had his best chance. The sort of reckless officisting caused a ton of damage both physicaly and mentally to the Suns (as it encourages benifiting teams to be dangerously aggressive and can mentally breaks down the opposing teams, leading to technicalities) This Youtube vid has a bit of the horror: https://youtu.be/fvkKdXLwt0U https://youtu.be/fvkKdXLwt0U

AtlasBarfed 8y ago

I remember the year Donaghy was caught. That was a bizarre playoffs where every single series seemed to be going 7 games, with home teams basically never losing. Then Donaghy story explodes right before the playoffs, and suddenly the finals were over in 5 or 6 games and the entire appearance of the games changed. On top of the suspicious "stolen" playoff series with Sacramento and Miami and Phoenix in previous years. I am convinced Donaghy was just side betting manipulation orders that were coming down from David Stern. Once caught, the league had to stop manipulating the refereeing and Donaghy became the scapegoat.