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Gambling Allegations Cast Suspicion On All Sports

By JOE HENDERSON

Published: Jul 25, 2007

Everybody is suspect now.

That's the worst part of the scandal triggered by the FBI investigation into the gambling habits of former National Basketball Association official Tim Donaghy. Even though the league has tried to paint Donaghy as a "rogue, isolated criminal" who acted alone, everybody is suspect.

Every time there's a bad call now - in any sport - even fair-minded people will have Tim Donaghy's name flash through their minds. If the call is bad enough, reason and fair-mindedness could give way to wild accusations and assumptions. Except, well, can you think of anything now that's too wild to consider?

The next time Shaquille O'Neal gets three fouls in the first five minutes, was that a mob guy out there blowing the whistle? If there is a phantom holding penalty that nullifies a potential game-winning touchdown for the Bucs, will your favorite sports talk radio host scream the game had to be fixed?

If an umpire's strike zone shrinks during the baseball playoffs or he calls someone out when they should be safe, will it flash through your mind that he's just trying to keep Tony Soprano from cracking his thumbs?

"This not only affects the NBA, but all sports," former Orlando Magic and Brandon High player Jeff Turner said. "The NBA really is well-run and pays attention to this sort of thing, but if it happens to this sport why not the other leagues, too?"

Gambling scandals have been part of sports since the Black Sox conspired to throw the World Series in 1919. Where there is money and action, there will be temptation - from CCNY in college basketball, to the yearlong suspensions of Alex Karras and Paul Hornung from the NFL in 1963 for betting on games, to Pete Rose and many points in between.

It's bad enough if it's simple wagering on games - as Karras, Hornung and Rose did.

When it rises to the level of influencing the outcome, you're getting into Black Sox territory. It threatens the whole structure of sport. The basic premise of any game is that the outcome will be determined between the lines, not because someone had 100 large laid down at 10-to-1.

Lose that trust and you risk losing everything.

Vitale: 'Almost Feel Abused'

Donaghy is said to be cooperating with authorities.

Donaghy's lawyer - Tampa's John Lauro - told NBA Commissioner David Stern that Donaghy is thinking about copping a plea. A condition of any plea, we can assume, will involve naming anyone else caught up in this. The bigger, the better.

Even if it should be proven Donaghy is that "rogue, isolated criminal" Stern suggested, does anyone really believe that will end the suspicion? A lot of people will just assume the others haven't been caught yet.

"Every referee will feel stained in a way," said Dick Vitale, who coached the Detroit Pistons before he became the voice of college basketball. "But I tell you, that's not even the worst of it.

"He might have played a vital role in a guy losing his job. You're coaching your heart out, and there's a guy blowing the whistle affecting their jobs. Or players busting their gut and trying to get to the playoffs and this affects them. For people who love the game, you almost feel abused right now."

You start looking back at games you watched. Was this one fixed? Was that one?

And consider the timing. Television ratings for the NBA Finals in June were abysmal, and now this. The uproar likely will die down in a few days as we move onto other things, but the scandal will hang over the sport all summer. When camps open this fall, the story will reopen like a fresh wound and play out all again.

That's assuming it only stays as bad as it already is. The doomsday scenario is where Donaghy rolls over on other players or officials and has the proof. Was there anyone else? That's the question everyone associated with the sport is asking themselves today.

Lousy Call

Matt Geiger played at Countryside High and Georgia Tech before spending 10 years in the trenches as a center for Miami, Charlotte and Philadelphia. You see a lot of calls in 10 years - maybe none worse, he said, than the phantom foul call on Chicago's Scottie Pippen that sent New York's Hubert Davis to the line in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals and turned around that game and series. But he just thought it was a lousy call.

"In my 10 years of playing I never remember an incident that would make you believe something shady was going on," he said. "It would shock me an unbelievable amount to look back on a game I played in and say, 'Man, I don't know.' You just assumed everything was on the level.

"This [Donaghy] kind of changes that. You might think a game was good, and then you watch video after you become aware [of potential gambling] and all of a sudden it might look different. Who knows how far it will go?"

There's no answer for that right now, only questions and suspicions.

And doubt.

You can like the outcome of a game or not. You can think the referee calls were good, or maybe they weren't. At the core of it all, though, was a fundamental belief that everything was fair and on the level.

Now we're not so sure. Now there is doubt.

And everyone is suspect.

Keyword: Sports for video of Joe Henderson and Anwar S. Richardson discussing where David Stern and the NBA go from here.