http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/ian_thomsen/07/24/donaghy/index.html
Cause for concern
Referees worried Donaghy will drag them into scandal
Posted: Tuesday July 24, 2007 11:34AM; Updated: Tuesday July 24, 2007 1:43PM
As bad as this scandal appears for the NBA, it's still just one referee -- one man -- who is being investigated for betting on games he worked and making calls to affect the point spread in games over the past two seasons.
But what if Tim Donaghy comes up with information that implicates other referees in a larger betting scandal? There is going to be a lot of pressure on him to provide evidence to the FBI. The NBA referees who know him fear he will implicate them in a larger betting scandal -- whether or not they were involved.
"We know who we are dealing with,'' said a highly placed league source, who is "very concerned'' Donaghy would escalate such a case into a modern-day Salem witch trial.
"We always said if he goes down [for anything], he's going to take other people with him," said a member of Donaghy's former golf club in suburban Philadelphia who asked not to be named.
Much has already been written about Donaghy's misdeeds, including allegations of assault against a mailman. (The case was dropped because Charles Brogan failed to show up for a court hearing.) In January, 2005, Donaghy's next-door neighbors in suburban Philadelphia sued him for harassment and invasion of privacy for a pattern of discord that had reportedly gone on for several years. Peter and Lisa Mansueto claimed Donaghy vandalized their property and stalked them, even to the point of following Mrs. Mansueto around Radley Run Country Club, where Donaghy and the Mansuetos were members. After an internal investigation, Donaghy was suspended from Radley Run for the summer and early fall of 2004. The suit also alleged Donaghy set fire to the Mansuetos' lawn mower and crashed their golf cart into a ravine. (The lawsuit was dropped after Donaghy moved away.)
"We definitely had two years of hell,'' said Peter Mansueto, who added that he installed a $5,000 security-camera system in order to protect his house from Donaghy.
Mansueto said he still doesn't know why his former friend became an enemy. He wonders if Donaghy resented paying a $50,000 fee for the view of his lot on the golf course, while Mansueto paid just $2,000 in view fees for his.
Donaghy's nickname at the Radley Run Country Club was "Nutsy,'' according to Mansueto and the member of Donaghy's former golf club. "We never called him that to his face,'' Mansueto said. "But that's how he was known.''
Donaghy couldn't be reached for comment and his lawyer, John Lauro, declined comment.
In his blog last Friday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban called the Donaghy investigation "an opportunity'' for the NBA "to proactively put in place people, processes and transparency that will forever silence those who will question the NBA's integrity.''
After the 1919 Black Sox scandal, baseball reacted by creating the office of commissioner to restore faith that the games were being policed. Now NBA commissioner David Stern is going to have to do something just as revolutionary for his league. Even if only one NBA employee was involved, this scandal -- if the allegations are true -- will expose the incompetence of the league's administration of its referees.
The league hires "standard observers" to attend every game and rate the work of the officiating crews. This system rewarded Donaghy with five playoff games last season even as the FBI was pursuing the allegations against him. Either the NBA couldn't figure out on its own that something suspicious was happening, or it ignored the evidence (or perhaps the FBI asked the league to sit tight while it tried to gather more evidence). The safe conclusion is the league doesn't understand how to judge its own referees, and that the wrong people are making the judgments.
Here are some of the questions the NBA needs to address in light of the investigation, especially in terms of Donaghy's "call selectivity,'' which is defined as the ability to use good judgment in making calls (the call selectivity of good officials is rated in the upper-90s percentile):
If Donaghy is charged with missing or fabricating calls at the end of games, how would they have gone unnoticed by the NBA standard observer in the audience at each game?
What was Donaghy's call selectivity percentage?
How many times was Donaghy observed in person by his direct supervisor? Did the supervisor notice anything wrong with his call selectivity?
Did director of officials Ronnie Nunn notice something wrong with Donaghy's call selectivity?
If Donaghy's call selectivity was down, why would executive VP of basketball operations Stu Jackson assign him to the second round of the playoffs last season?
The league keeps data on referees. Was the wrong data tabulated? Were the officials tabulating the data not competent?
Who completed Donaghy's mid-year review?
Why did Donaghy remain on staff despite all of his documented issues off the court?
If the crew chiefs noticed something was wrong with the league's training and evaluation system, did the NBA consider doing something to fix it?
SI.com's Chris Mannix contributed to this report.
Cause for concern
Referees worried Donaghy will drag them into scandal
Posted: Tuesday July 24, 2007 11:34AM; Updated: Tuesday July 24, 2007 1:43PM
As bad as this scandal appears for the NBA, it's still just one referee -- one man -- who is being investigated for betting on games he worked and making calls to affect the point spread in games over the past two seasons.
But what if Tim Donaghy comes up with information that implicates other referees in a larger betting scandal? There is going to be a lot of pressure on him to provide evidence to the FBI. The NBA referees who know him fear he will implicate them in a larger betting scandal -- whether or not they were involved.
"We know who we are dealing with,'' said a highly placed league source, who is "very concerned'' Donaghy would escalate such a case into a modern-day Salem witch trial.
"We always said if he goes down [for anything], he's going to take other people with him," said a member of Donaghy's former golf club in suburban Philadelphia who asked not to be named.
Much has already been written about Donaghy's misdeeds, including allegations of assault against a mailman. (The case was dropped because Charles Brogan failed to show up for a court hearing.) In January, 2005, Donaghy's next-door neighbors in suburban Philadelphia sued him for harassment and invasion of privacy for a pattern of discord that had reportedly gone on for several years. Peter and Lisa Mansueto claimed Donaghy vandalized their property and stalked them, even to the point of following Mrs. Mansueto around Radley Run Country Club, where Donaghy and the Mansuetos were members. After an internal investigation, Donaghy was suspended from Radley Run for the summer and early fall of 2004. The suit also alleged Donaghy set fire to the Mansuetos' lawn mower and crashed their golf cart into a ravine. (The lawsuit was dropped after Donaghy moved away.)
"We definitely had two years of hell,'' said Peter Mansueto, who added that he installed a $5,000 security-camera system in order to protect his house from Donaghy.
Mansueto said he still doesn't know why his former friend became an enemy. He wonders if Donaghy resented paying a $50,000 fee for the view of his lot on the golf course, while Mansueto paid just $2,000 in view fees for his.
Donaghy's nickname at the Radley Run Country Club was "Nutsy,'' according to Mansueto and the member of Donaghy's former golf club. "We never called him that to his face,'' Mansueto said. "But that's how he was known.''
Donaghy couldn't be reached for comment and his lawyer, John Lauro, declined comment.
In his blog last Friday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban called the Donaghy investigation "an opportunity'' for the NBA "to proactively put in place people, processes and transparency that will forever silence those who will question the NBA's integrity.''
After the 1919 Black Sox scandal, baseball reacted by creating the office of commissioner to restore faith that the games were being policed. Now NBA commissioner David Stern is going to have to do something just as revolutionary for his league. Even if only one NBA employee was involved, this scandal -- if the allegations are true -- will expose the incompetence of the league's administration of its referees.
The league hires "standard observers" to attend every game and rate the work of the officiating crews. This system rewarded Donaghy with five playoff games last season even as the FBI was pursuing the allegations against him. Either the NBA couldn't figure out on its own that something suspicious was happening, or it ignored the evidence (or perhaps the FBI asked the league to sit tight while it tried to gather more evidence). The safe conclusion is the league doesn't understand how to judge its own referees, and that the wrong people are making the judgments.
Here are some of the questions the NBA needs to address in light of the investigation, especially in terms of Donaghy's "call selectivity,'' which is defined as the ability to use good judgment in making calls (the call selectivity of good officials is rated in the upper-90s percentile):
If Donaghy is charged with missing or fabricating calls at the end of games, how would they have gone unnoticed by the NBA standard observer in the audience at each game?
What was Donaghy's call selectivity percentage?
How many times was Donaghy observed in person by his direct supervisor? Did the supervisor notice anything wrong with his call selectivity?
Did director of officials Ronnie Nunn notice something wrong with Donaghy's call selectivity?
If Donaghy's call selectivity was down, why would executive VP of basketball operations Stu Jackson assign him to the second round of the playoffs last season?
The league keeps data on referees. Was the wrong data tabulated? Were the officials tabulating the data not competent?
Who completed Donaghy's mid-year review?
Why did Donaghy remain on staff despite all of his documented issues off the court?
If the crew chiefs noticed something was wrong with the league's training and evaluation system, did the NBA consider doing something to fix it?
SI.com's Chris Mannix contributed to this report.
