Can Donaghy’s Banned Book On NBA Refs Be Canseco Redux?

Back in the late Eighties, we enjoyed a trustful reporter-athlete relationship with the Washington Bullets Darrell Walker, a rugged defensive guard and effective playmaker.
He was always forthright and incisive in analyzing a game, attributes that would serve him well in future years when he became an NBA coach.
  But Walker was always one to openly dispute a referee’s call if he felt it was unjust. One referee, in particular, did not enjoy Walker questioning his decisions. During pre-game warm-ups, Walker would amble over to the press table and inquire, “Is Steve Javie working tonight?’ When the answer was affirmative, Walker would shake his head and say, “Then I’ll be gone by halftime.’’
  His prediction invariably proved true.  The first two times Walker opened his mouth or gave his tormentor a dirty look, Javie would hit him with a couple of quick technicals and the granting of an early shower.
    This bit of history came back in sharp focus last month when disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who served a 15-month prison term for conspiring with gamblers, successfully sold his jail-penned, “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA’’ to Triumph Books, a subsidiary of Random House.
  The Internet site Deadspin carried extensive excerpts of the book under the banner, “The Book the NBA Doesn’t Want You To Read.’’  Donaghy points the finger at such high-profile officials as Dick Bavetta, Tommy Nunez, Joey Crawford, Ronnie Nunn,  Bernie Fryer and the aforementioned Javie of patently influencing games with their calls or non-calls.
  He also accuses longtime Commissioner David Stern of strongly suggesting that Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade should be protected against fouling out of the game since they were the superstars the fans paid big bucks to watch perform. The same applied to all but assuring tha the Lakers would advance to the championship round.
  It took only a matter of days for Stern and the NBA lawyers to threaten a libel suit against Random House, and the powerful publisher to cancel Donaghy’s alleged expose, although the NBA insists the FBI carefully investigated all of his latest claims and found they had no more merit than when Donaghy pleaded his case in 2008.
  “We take any question regarding the integrity of our game extremely seriously,’ said Elizabeth Ventura, the NBA’s senior vice president for communications. She said league investigator Lawrence Pedowitz, a former federal prosecutor, concluded Donaghy’s charges “were unfounded.’’
  The reaction of the media has been split. Longtime NBA reporter and author Mark Heisler, who covered the Philadelphia 76ers, prefers believing a sinner like Donaghy should not be considered credible.
  Wrote Heisler, “There are a lot of disaffected former NBA officials-they’re not all retained-but no one has backed up Donaghy on anything. That leaves only scattered anecdotes, presented as the tip of an iceberg, rather than some ice cubes floating around.’’
  But we weigh in on the side of native son Frank Deford, the highly-respected Sports Illustrated writer and public radio commentator who wrote, “I don’t believe you can read Donaghy’s book without harboring doubt about the integrity of the league officiating.’’ Deford said Canseco’s expose about steroid use in major league baseball was treated with the same cynicism by officialdom only to prove embarrassingly on the money.
Let’s first look at Donaghy’s claim that certain referees, Javie, in particular, would guarantee a few outspoken players like Darrell Walker or Allen Iverson an early exit or repeated whistles for alleged infractions.
  In Deadspin’s excerpts, Donaghy said he would always bet on the opposing team if Javie was working a game involving the high-scoring Iverson. “Javie hated Iverson and was loath to give him a favorable call.’
It reached the point where 76ers GM and later President Billy King would repeatedly gripe to the NBA office about Javie’s apparent feud with Iverson. After he was traded to Denver and played for the first time against his former team, Javie whistled him for two quick “T’s.
  Said Iverson, “I thought he was calling the game personal, and he threw me out. His fuse is real short anyway, and I should have known that I couldn’t say anything. It’s been something personal with me and him since I got in the league, and this was the perfect game for him to try and make me look bad.’
  Iverson was fined $25,000 for his remarks, but fellow referees felt he should have been suspended and supported Javie by also giving Iverson the business. On Jan. 6. 2007, Donaghy said he worked a Denver game with Fryer and Gary Zielinski in which they agreed to repeatedly call Iverson for palming. Before the tip-off Donaghy made a call to his partner in crime and told him to bet heavily against Denver. The refereeing trio kept to their agreement, so unnerving Iverson that he made only 5 of 19 shots and committed five turnovers.
  In frustration, Iverson walked over to Donaghy near the end of the game and asked, “How long am I going to be punished for Javie?’’
    The alleged conspiracy by Donaghy and his fellow crew members to decide who could avoid giving the ball boy assigned to the referee’s room a $20 post-game tip by calling the first technical or holding out the longest in blowing his whistle seems trivial compared to the claims that several playoff series were rigged.
  Donaghy reiterated his claim that game six of the 2002 Western Conference final between the Lakers and Sacramento was heavily weighted in favor of Los Angeles by virtue of the greater number of fouls assessed the Kings, who held a surprising 3-2 advantage.. Although he did not work the series, he wrote “it presents a game and series manipulation at its ugliest.’’
  According to Donaghy, Bavetta was the principal villain. “Studying under Bavetta for 13 years was like pursuing a graduate degree in advanced game manipulation. He knew how to marshal the tone and tempo of a game better than any referee in the league, by far. He also knew how to take subtle and not so subtle cues from the NBA office and extend a playoff series, or, worse yet, change the complexion of a series.’
  Bavetta, who was to work game six with Bob Delaney and Ted Bernhardt, allegedly received a pre-game call from NBA headquarters that the referees were missing calls that would benefit the Lakers. As Donaghy surmises, this was a clear message to Bavetta that the league wanted a seventh and deciding game to help give the large-market Lakers a chance at advancing to the finals.

  As things developed, the Lakers required repeated trips to the foul line in the final quarter to defeat the inspired Kings. But this was only one of several playoff series influenced by Bavettas’ presence if you believe Donaghy.
  In the winter of 2000, the Lakers found themselves trailing the Portland Trail Blazers by 13 at the start of the fourth quarter in the seventh and deciding game of the Western Conference finals. Profiting from repeated trips to the foul line, the Lakers outscored the Blazers 31-13 in the last 12 minutes to win the series.  The final tally showed Los Angeles attempted 37 free throws compared to16 by Portland. As Dr. Lee famously uttered in O.J. Simpson’s historic trial, “Something fishy!’’
    There are numerous other charges of how certain officials like Crawford allegedly used his liking of Iverson to favor the team for which he was currently playing. Likewise Derrick Stafford’s admiration of former Knicks’ coach Isiah Thomas, enough to convince Donaghy the game would be decided by the whistle-blowers and to place a well-timed wager.
    Even before Donaghy took the big fall in 2007, Rasheed Wallace, who was targeted by Javie and his confederates as the No. 1 troublemaker, had his suspicions. Wallace, who holds the dubious league record for drawing technical fouls, opined, “”Some of them cats are felonious, man.’’
  And old friend Darrell Walker, now an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons, must be laughing to himself.