NBA officials allegedly told referees not to call technical fouls on star players so that ticket sales and TV ratings of the games wouldn't be affected, a disgraced ref told the FBI according to court filings today.
The bombshell letter filed in Brooklyn federal court by the defense attorney for disgraced gambling referee Timothy Donaghy contained claims of favoritism, improper gratuities, conflict of interest, blown foul calls and alleged interference by league officials in the work of refs in the NBA.
Donaghy also told the FBI that a couple of referees appeared to cook up foul calls in a 2002 NBA playoff game in order to have the series go to a seventh game.
The only seven-game series in the entire 2002 playoffs was between the Lakers and Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference finals. The Lakers won Games 6 and 7 to advance to the NBA Finals.
Attorney John F. Lauro, of Tampa, Florida, submitted the letter in an effort to spell out how Donaghy cooperated with the FBI after he became implicated in a betting scandal that cost him his league job. Lauro stated in his letter to Judge Carol B. Amon that he thought an earlier letter filed by prosecutors didn't do enough to spell out the extent of Donaghy's cooperation.
Donaghy is slated to be sentenced next month by Amon following his conviction last year to felony charges stemming from his gambling. Though he faces time in prison it is expected under federal sentencing guidelines that Donaghy will get little or no prison time and that his cooperation would be important for a light sentence.
Lauro also filed a second letter in which he revealed that the NBA is seeking to have Donaghy pay the league $ 1 million in restitution. The league filed a letter with federal probation officials earlier this month in an effort to recoup the cost of an internal probe of Donaghy's conduct, said Lauro in the letter.
According to Lauro, Donaghy told the FBI about efforts to manipulate games during a meeting in Tampa last September.
"For instance, Tim explained that league officials would tell referees that they should withhold calling technical fouls on certain star players because doing so hurt ticket sales and teleivision ratings," said Lauro.
As an example, the attorney claimed that at times a referee supervisor would tell game refs that "NBA Executive X" didn't want them to call technical fouls on star players or remove them from games.
