12/21/24
October 31, 2009
Publisher Drops NBA Ref Tim Donaghy's Tell-All: Random House, the publisher of former NBA referee Tim Donaghy's book Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA, has dropped the book shortly before its November release, citing "a close legal review of the final manuscript ... and our independent evaluation of some of the author's sources and statements." Donaghy was convicted in 2008 of gambling-related charges including game-fixing and sentenced to 15 months in prison. On Wednesday, Deadspin ran excerpts of the book in which Donaghy claims that refs routinely manipulate games to benefit star players and get a desired outcome, most notably in game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers. "As soon as the referees for the game were chosen, the rest of us knew immediately that there would be a Game 7," writes Donaghy. "[I]t was a shameful performance by [Dick] Bavetta's crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time."
posted by rcade to basketball at 10:58 AM - 6 comments
I used to think that the claims of NBA favoritism and big-game fixing were paranoia on the part of flyover fans (like me). Donaghy's claims really make me wonder how much of the sport has been manipulated.
posted by rcade at 11:20 AM on October 31, 2009
Random House is MSM. Of course they were going to drop it.
...citing "a close legal review of the final manuscript ... and our independent evaluation of some of the author's sources and statements."
In other words, too many people in the Old Boy Network were getting worried. The NBA has too many corporate mouths to feed. Sponsors, networks, corporate promotions...
And this is no "conspiracy theory". It's simply the way captains of industry do each other favors in order to protect their interests.
posted by JButton at 02:40 PM on October 31, 2009
This book needs to leak onto tha intrawebs right now!
posted by Drood at 02:42 PM on October 31, 2009
Does anyone really think that ABC wants to pay millions to have Utah vs Indiana in the NBA finals? Even if either of these teams had a realistic chance to make it that far, you can bet they wouldn't. Once the playoffs start, your betting guide should be to compare the size of the TV market for each team.
One of the Boston writers tried to explain away the referees' bias toward the stars by saying that "they're only human". Excuse me, but on the court (or field or ice) referees (or umpires) have no business being human. They must be absolutely impartial, unbiased, clinically fair, and otherwise neutral. There's no room for emotion, letting someone look good, or helping someone to pad his stats.
posted by Howard_T at 03:45 PM on October 31, 2009
Random House is MSM. Of course they were going to drop it.
Then why pick it up in the first place? They signed a book deal with him, paid him an advance, edited the manuscript, readied it for publication and solicited orders from bookstores. That's a lot of work to do for a project unless you were going to publish it.
posted by rcade at 04:23 PM on October 31, 2009
Could the NBA have managed to quash this? I'm certain they weren't excited about it, and given the snowball that starting rolling with the Canseco book and baseball, I would imagine Stern doing what he can to prevent publishing.
I read those excerpts and it's pretty damning. Not just because it points out what we already know - that superstars get favorite status and not all fouls are created equal - but how institutionalized that bias is.