Obviously I bet on games I officiated. I passed on information based on the meetings that the referees were having, and based on what the league office wanted us to call in playoff games. With that being said, I was able to win at a high percentage when we were betting on NBA games.
Tim Donaghy
I feel like we all make mistakes in life. Maybe mine was a little more public than others.
The big question on everyone's mind is, 'Did Tim Donaghy fix games?' The answer is no. I didn't need to fix them. I usually knew which team was going to win based on which referees had been assigned to the game, their personalities, and the relationships they had with the players and coaches of the teams involved.
I truly believe that at some point they're going to have kiosks in every NBA arena, like they do at the airport when you get your boarding pass, so you can bet on the games.
The bottom line is the NBA is going to do whatever they can do to create more revenue.
Any time that you have a sporting event with a Vegas line to it, there's always going to be somebody involved in organized crime trying to make a dollar off of it.
If you're going to advance as a referee and make that $75,000 to $100,000 a year in the playoffs, you're going to give the league what they want. Because they are grading you.
I knew it was wrong, but I thought gambling was a venial sin. That's why I didn't confess it to a priest until after I was caught.
At some point, you're going to see the ability for a fan sitting in a seat to bet, swiping his credit card, whether James Harden is going to score ten 3-pointers or not that night.
The craft of officiating is taught that people come and pay top dollar to see people like Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, all the stars, and you have to make sure when you blow the whistle against those individuals that it's a foul that you basically can't let go.
I'm Catholic, I'm conditioned to confess.
I had the opportunity to run up and down the court with the greatest athletes in the world.
Did I go out and make calls in those games that the NBA wanted me and the crew to call? Absolutely. Did it put a team at an advantage and a disadvantage? Absolutely and that's how I was able to win the bets so easily.
If you're fixing a game, you're making calls up against star players to get that star player to the bench so that team is at a major disadvantage.
I think there's a lot of successful referees to come out of the Philadelphia area because the basketball is so good.
I wanted to be a part of the NBA because I enjoyed the Sixers games when I was young.
I had a great job, living a great lifestyle... and just started doing the wrong things, getting a little bit cocky.
On the golf course, playing cards, running to the casinos, betting on college and pro football, it keeps spilling over to the next step, the next step, the next step. I basically started giving people information that I was receiving in the locker room, injury reports.
The FBI and the NBA did a thorough investigation, and they both concluded that I did not fix games in the NBA.
When you see an article it always has 'disgraced NBA referee.' It's embarrassing and it's never going to be okay. Unfortunately, I have to move forward and just make things different moving forward.
I had a great job and I lost it, but I'm doing great now, I have a great family, my daughters all live with me. Did I have a setback? Absolutely, but I don't look at it like a ruined my life.
I just loved the game of basketball growing up and my goal was to somehow be a part of it.
I do believe Allen Iverson knew this, and I believe all the players know this: that certain referees treat them much better than others.
We all have choices to make in life. And when we decide to go down that wrong road we'd be better off backing up and realizing that not only do you affect your life with some terrible choices, but the lives of people you love the most, and that's your family.
Not only did I not like officiating his games, I was afraid at times he was going to knock my block off... there was nothing you could do to get the guy on your side... with saying that, I've talked to Rasheed Wallace in the last couple of years and he's nothing but a complete gentleman off the floor.
In the future you're going to be able to go into a 7-Eleven and buy a ticket on a game, and people who don't use gambling as often as others do, like the people who go and buy lottery tickets, there's going to be more opportunity for people to do it. And with people casually gambling throughout the country, it's going to generate a lot of money.
Some officials are afraid to blow the whistle with 20,000 people screaming and yelling at them. Some officials love to have the crowd go against them.
I still see referees officiating based on names on the front and back of jerseys and not based on how the rules are written in the rule book.
I got caught up with gambling at the golf course, the backroom card games at the casinos with buddies there, and eventually betting on sporting events. I think it became a situation where I got consumed by it and loved every minute of it.
I knew there were certain relationships that existed between referees and players, referees and coaches and referees and owners that influence the point spreads in games.
When you talk about gambling and the euphoria that comes with it, making winning picks is what excites you.
I lived with my parents until I was 27.
It's mostly the coaches the refs don't like. Like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. Jackson is a master at setting up refs, always telling them they're against his team, playing mind games.
Absolutely, when you talk about the embarrassment that I caused in 2007 for myself, my family, the NBA, it was embarrassing then, and it's as embarrassing now seeing it play out in a movie 10 years later. It's tough to watch it. Every time I watch it, I cringe through the whole thing.
I wish I could turn back time. Unfortunately, I can't.
A Brooklyn-Miami matchup would bring great ratings and that's what this is all about for the NBA and the league offices - bringing in as many dollars as they can.
I started stuffing wads of cash into my socks and underwear and quietly passed by the T.S.A. agents with a grin on my face and a sigh of relief.
There's no doubt that there is star treatment. It's discussed in the meetings. Obviously, people don't pay an enormous amount of money to sit in those courtside seats to see players like Kobe, LeBron, Shaq - all the greats - sit on the bench and be in foul trouble.
I don't really need to bury the NBA. I just want the truth to be known about what I did and how I did it.
I was in a unique position to predict the outcome of NBA games. Some of my picks included games I had been assigned to referee.
I was a target. There was a guy who took a paint roller extension pole and blasted me in the knee a few times. I had to have surgery to relieve the pain when I got out of prison.
I'm not saying the games are fixed, because they are not. But they definitely program and train these referees to go out on the floor, and look for certain things, to put teams at advantages or disadvantages, based on who's up or down in the series.
