Crooked ref says NBA corrupt

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 Tuesday.

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.

Commissioner David Stern called the allegations baseless.

"All I can say is that he's looking for anything that will somehow shorten the sentence, and it's not going to happen," Stern said.

Donaghy pleaded guilty last year to felony charges alleging he took cash payoffs from gamblers and bet on games himself. The 41-year-old ref faces up to 33 months in prison at sentencing on July 14.

"If the NBA wanted a team to succeed, league officials would inform referees that opposing players were getting away with violations," the letter said. "Referees then would call fouls on certain players, frequently resulting in victory for the opposing team."

The league called Donaghy's allegations false and self-serving, saying the scandal was limited to him and two co-defendants, both former high-school classmates who also pleaded guilty to gambling charges.

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 a seventh game. The only seven-game series in the entire 2002 playoffs was between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference finals. The Lakers won Games 6 and 7 and went on to win their third consecutive NBA title.

"He's a singing, cooperating witness who is trying to get as light a sentence as he can," Stern said. "He turned on basically all of his colleagues in an attempt to demonstrate that he is not the only one who engaged in criminal activity. The U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one who is guilty of a crime. And he will be sentenced for that crime regardless of the desperate attempts to implicate as many people as he can."

Attorney John F. Lauro, of Tampa, Fla., submitted the letter and a second letter in which he revealed that the NBA is seeking to have Donaghy pay the league $1 million in restitution. The league wants to recoup the cost of an internal probe of Donaghy's conduct, Lauro wrote.

Donaghy also alleges manipulation during a 2005 playoff series.

"Team 3 lost the first two games in the series and Team 3's owner complained to NBA officials," the letter said. "Team 3's owner alleged that referees were letting a Team 4 player get away with illegal screens. NBA Executive Y told Referee Supervisor Z that the referees for that game were to enforce the screening rules strictly against that Team 4 player. ...

"The referees followed the league's instructions and Team 3 came back from behind to win the series. The NBA benefited from this because it prolonged the series, resulting in more tickets sold and more televised games."

Donaghy's letter said that in the first of several meetings with prosecutors and the FBI in New York in 2007, he named names while describing "improper interactions" between referees and players, coaches and management.