Tim Donaghy, the NBA official that plead guilty to federal charges for a sports gambling scandal, is suddenly back in the spotlight. Despite the NBA trying desperately to paint Donaghy as its most deplorable employee ever and the lone gunman, he’s come right back and taken a shot across the association’s bow with a tell-all book, “Blowing the Whistle”. For those of you who haven’t yet read some of the excerpts, I suggest you do so (after this blog) at deadspin.com. There is some compelling stuff in there. Whether you want to believe it or not is entirely up to the reader. But if history has taught us anything (and it usually teaches us very well) it’s that we shouldn’t necessarily label him a liar so quickly. Case and point would be Jose Canseco, who got drubbed when he published his steroid-whodunit book. Canseco was called everything but an honest man, however as the years passed, he looked not only prescient, but strangely vindicated through new discoveries. Now, we have another dark figure in Donaghy emerging after the NBA’s worst controversy, and he is painting a picture that no one in the association wants to see.
So, once again, we have a choice. We can vilify Donaghy as we did Canseco, or we can investigate his claims. Personally, I find it hard to believe that everything in his book is true. Remember, this is a man who got caught and convicted in a gambling scandal because he was a sloppy degenerate. He took the quick way out, cooperating on the federal level, pleading guilty, and is now hoping to avoid charges on the state level for his unfathomable actions. In a way, Donaghy is worse than Pete Rose because he actually influenced the outcome of games, tainting not only the image of the NBA, but the sanctity of the game itself. That being said, I believe at least 75% of his book is probably true. Why? Because there are unwritten rules in every sport organization that basically say you don’t talk about what goes on inside the organization. Once you are cast out in an unfavorable fashion, what do you have to lose? Tim Donaghy probably felt like the sacrificial lamb for his refereeing fraternity. True, what he did was wrong, but if we are led to believe what he’s telling us, then he wasn’t the only one. Far from it. The truth is, Donaghy has two issues: He needs money, and he doesn’t want to be the only one to go down now that the ship is sinking. As despicable as it sounds, I understand him. Let’s face it, Donaghy knew he was sitting on a bevy of information that was probably worth a lot of money to the highest bidder, and it was only a matter of time before someone approached him for his side of the story. Much like Canseco, he decided to write a book to show everyone the wizard behind the great curtain that is the NBA, which is taboo to anyone who is either currently involved in the association or has been faithful to it. But, if Canseco has taught us anything, it’s that just because someone is unlikable doesn’t mean they aren’t telling the truth. I don’t know of many people who idolize Tim Donaghy, but that doesn’t mean he’s lying. True, we have no reason to believe he’s telling the complete truth either, but when people’s past suspicions about refereeing in the league are confirmed inside the contents of a book, Donaghy will find support in the oddest of places.
I wonder if David Stern is laughing these new allegations off, or if he’s preparing a monster defense. He called the Donaghy incident a “wake-up call”. I find it curious that he’d say that when there may have been far more participants who were complacent the entire time before and probably after the Donaghy incident. So, if the incident was a wake-up call, how is it that only Donaghy has gone down for this? Was Stern so anxious and desperate to maintain the pristine image of his sport that he would hope against hope the rest of the referees who were dirty would simply keep quiet and conform to the code of silence? That the alternative, which was a house cleaning of referees and as good as an admission of guilt, is totally out of the question? The only thing Stern has going for him is this isn’t like steroids. There is no list from 2003 that’s being leaked, no bloody syringes, no clear creams. This won’t be easy to prove, one way or the other. Stern is probably banking on silence getting him through this firestorm, but should these allegations receive some validation, it could be a long time before the NBA is once again revered as an honest sport, and Stern would be updating his resume shortly thereafter. The one thing all of us can be certain of is David Stern has a lot to worry about, because it doesn’t matter if Donaghy is telling the truth. It doesn’t matter if he isn’t a likable guy. The damage is done. The court of public opinion has been given damning evidence, and the verdict is in. And yet, despite all this, the NBA will go on. And in time, most people will forget about Tim Donaghy. But somewhere, David Stern is praying that someone else doesn’t come along and corroborate every juicy detail that Donaghy is spilling.
Because then what?
A Pleasant Conversation 