Donaghy's Iverson Allegation New to NBA

Filed under: NBA Gambling, NBA Referees

On Sunday, CBS aired a 60 Minutes interview with Tim Donaghy, the disgraced former NBA referee/convicted felon who has admitted to gambling on games he officiated. In the interview, Donaghy discussed passages of his new book, including a fair bit on his allegation that referees (himself included) conspired in early 2007 to partake in some vigilante justice on Allen Iverson, who had just threatened ref Steve Javie in the course of a game. Donaghy says officials didn't think the NBA's fine was enough punishment for A.I., so refs decided to punish him with the whistle.

After the 60 Minutes segment aired, the NBA released a statement in which Commissioner David Stern, as he did when excerpts of Donaghy's book first leaked in October, categorically denied Donaghy's allegations of referee bias, and reminded us that the FBI, in its investigation of Donaghy, did not find any criminal actions on the part of any other league referee. I took that to mean that the NBA had previously known about and dismissed the Iverson allegation. The problem with that, though, was that unlike other allegations raised in the course of the Donaghy investigation, the Iverson incident was not discussed at all in Lawrence Pedowitz's independent report on the case.

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/12/08/donaghys-iverson-allegation-new-to-the-nba/