David Stern does not believe you … you’re a liar

July 15th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

I can’t say the whole Tim Donaghy scandal really has had any effect on the amount of basketball I watch. And the same can be said for steroids in baseball; it happened (or is still happening), we all move on. (This is not to say I don’t think differently about each sport now — when Josh Hamilton was at the dish last night, I couldn’t help but let the thought creep into my mind that he might  A) be using a corked bat and B) could possibly be on some sort of performance enhancer. This is not an indictment on the guy, it’s just a reality now after what his predecessors did. )

So as it’s revealed that Donaghy made 134 calls to a fellow ref during the same time he was betting on games, some more of that suspicion starts to creep in.

 NBA commissioner David Stern has called Donaghy a “rogue, isolated criminal” acting on his own, without the cooperation of any other referees or league officials.

“The government had complete access to Tim Donaghy’s phone records and thoroughly investigated this matter, including conducting an interview of referee Scott Foster,” the NBA said in a statement. “The government has said that they have found no evidence of criminal conduct aside from that of Mr. Donaghy. Once again, the only criminal conduct is that of Mr. Donaghy.”

According to a story published Monday on Fox News’ Web site, the majority of the phone calls lasted no more than two minutes and occurred before and after games Donaghy officiated and on which he admits wagering.

Reached for comment by Fox, Foster was asked if he was being investigated by the NBA, the government or anyone else.

“Not that I know of,” he said.

Marcel over at SLAM seems to think this is a bit fishy, and I do tend to agree.  Although, it’s always a possibly they were sharing workout tips. Foster looks pretty JACKED too.

NBA refs a bit sensitive about that whole gambling thing

March 31st, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Referees will tolerate a lot from coaches and players. Some refs are even nice enough to engage in game-long conversations with the subjects of their calls, which builds trust, or something. I can’t remember. I was drunk during that step in rehab.

Something refs will not tolerate, however, is screaming from the first row of an NBA game, not unless the screamer is Jack Nicholson or Spike Lee or maybe Eva Longoria. They especially won’t tolerate Tim Donaghy jokes, which, for refs, are probably about as funny as Hitler jokes are to a German. Warning: Awful punctuation ahead:

Me(intoxicated): MAKE SURE THE GAMES OVER 218 points. THE OVER. THE OVER. THE OVER.

referee(with no hesitation): THATS NOT FUNNY!THATS NOT FUNNY!YOUR OUTTA HERE!!

Next, he repeatedly blows his whistle and signals for a red suited security guard to eject me from the game! then the nba lead security questions me in the tunnel for 10 minutes and writes a report for league officials to investigate. he then takes my tickets and orders 10 red suited security guards to throw me out of the arena immediately.

Well, yeah buddy. What did you think was going to happen? The ref was going to crack a smile?

That ish is too hot right now, son. You don’t bring that into the stadium. That’s like waltzing into Bear Stearns’ office and screaming something oh-so-hilarious about their $2 stock price. Funny to rest of us? Of course. Funny to the brunt of the joke? Unlikely.

{HT: NBA ‘House}