Will David Stern's head explode?
Humble Pie?
I'm sitting here listening to David Stern's press conference for the embarrassment of Tim Donaghy. Wow. He sounds pissed. And contrite. I wouldn't say humble, but humbled. As in, "I can't believe my crap stinks!". He is the most powerful commissioner in sports. Much more so than Baseball and Football. NASCAR is as much a sport as poker and then there's hocket, or hockey. Whatever. It barely exists and I’m not sure can be considered a legitimate professional sport. Anyway, Stern is pissed.
Donaghy was investigated by the NBA prior to this...
Stern outlined in detail Donaghy's history with the NBA. In January of 2005, he had a dispute with a neighbor that resulted in litigation. Donaghy's neighbor sued him over an alleged dispute over what Donaghy allegedly did to his neighbor's lawnmower. Something a little nutty. Maybe Donaghy was cracking under pressure? Only speculation at this point. Stern stated that after this came to light, the NBA started its own investigation over the incident and called Donaghy into the corporate offices and told him that they, "were not happy", with the incident and if behavior/incidents like this continued, he would be dismissed from the NBA. Donaghy moved to another state. Case closed right? Wrong. A little while after this incident, the NBA got a tip that Donaghy was allegedly placing bets on games at the Borgata in
During the '05-'06 season, due to the incident that took place with Donaghy's neighbor, he was not allowed to work any games in the second round of playoff games. This was done despite his rating as one of the better officials in the league. There were no more incidents regarding Donaghy's personal behavior after the one with his neighbor and he began the '06-'07 season with a clean slate. Due to his superior grades for refereeing games during the '06-'07 season, he was allowed to work games in the second round of the playoffs that year. Just this past season. He refereed one of the more talked about officiated games of these past playoffs between the Spurs and Suns in
We did everything we could...
Stern outlined the security measures the NBA has in place to investigate suspicious activity internally. If their internal security force finds something that they consider "fishy", they then call in outside, private investigators. The internal security force, as many other corporations do, is comprised of former law enforcement employees. He went on about this for the first 7-10 minutes of the press conference. Really. It was painful.
Was Donaghy the only referee involved?
Stern also made sure to state that, to his knowledge to which he admits is second hand, that Donaghy is the only official that is associated with this scandal. It's curious though that he was among the highest ranked officials in the game. After each game an official is given a copy of the game that they refereed and they must write a report detailing each and every foul call and NOONE saw anything wrong with how he called the games? What is also curious is that Stern did not mention that there is no investigation underway on any players in the NBA. I know if I were commissioner and it were my league that was under scrutiny for a point shaving scandal, I would go out of my way to insure that there would be no questions left hanging in the air. I would definitely state that none of my players were currently being investigated.
139 Reg. Season Games, 8 Playoff Games and 4 Pre-Season Games in question...
Again, Stern as contrite as you will ever hear him, states that Donaghy is the only official that is associated with this investigation. This was what he has been told so far by the FBI and the Justice Department. Stern stated that, as he understands it, Donaghy is charged with:
- Betting on games…
- Supplying others with information that would benefit them as far as betting on games….
- And he may or may not have bet on games that he himself officiated. That much is not certain at this time.
Stern also wanted to clear up speculation about what the NBA knew. He stated that the NBA did NOT know that Donaghy may have been betting games or assisting on shaving points this past year. He finished up by stating that the NBA will do more investigating as to what they can do better in the future as far making sure that this type of behavior won't take place again and that this is the worst situation he has ever experienced as not only the commissioner of basketball, but also as a fan of the NBA.
What happens now?
6 comments:
This situation is definitely a bad thing. But maybe this will be a conduit for the nba to hold refs more accountable for their jobs. For years now, the nba refs have been corrupt. Perhaps not in the illegal betting sense a la Donaghy, but in the bullshit "superstar fouls" a la Jordan. I mean, as Knick fans, we have been watching refs be the sixth man and completely dictating the outcome of a game. Since Jordan retired, they now do it for the likes of Duncan (as was obvious in the spurs/suns games this playoff season), Kobe, Shaq, and a select few others. It has always bothered me that the NBA has never addressed the issue. Now this year, first with that one official kicking Duncan out a game for "laughing at him", and now this betting debacle, refs are showing their true colors. Hopefully it WILL make everyone question the ref's calls... most importantly THE REFS THEMSELVES.
It seems every sport is facing some sort of defining moment right now. Donaghy, the Barry Bonds issue, Micheal Vick, it's all just showing us that these guys are not worth the millions the world spends on them. They are a microcosm of the world we live in, where some people deserve to be put on a pedestal, for charity work, giving back to communities, etc., some guys just fly under the radar and do their jobs without calling any attention to themselves positive or negative, and then there are the bad apples. The ones that don't know when they've got a good thing, or can't shake old, bad habits. we are all human, capable of doing right and wrong. Thank goodness the world doesn't care when I squander millions in a gambling bet and shave points off NBA games to pay back the mob, or murder thousands of innocent animals for the barbaric enjoyment of my worthless friends. In light of these heinous acts, I'm ready to call BALCO and get my very own Barry Bonds Autographed Syringe. At least the only thing he's destroying is himself, in the long run.
Its true, the major sports are going through a good amount of turmoil. In regards to Vick though, I think its more of a philosophical argument though. The hypocrisy here in America shines ever more brightly on this issue.
Vick is in trouble for a few reasons. Stupidity would have to be his biggest crime to me. I could understand if I was a pro athlete maybe placing a bet on dog fighting. You grew up around it, so you understand that its illegal. You went to college after all. You know its illegal from an animal cruelty standpoint but also from the illegal gambling aspect. If the charges against him are true, not only is he cruel to animals, but incredibly stupid. He supposedly HOSTED this illegal gambling den and raised dozens of dogs for said illegal gambling den. He was the face of an NFL franchise. Its incredibly stupid. He had so much to lose and hes now facing federal charges. This blows Kobe out the box.
This country not only condones cruelty to animals, but to people as well unfortunately. Lest we forget our attorney general finding "loopholes" in doctrines allowing our government to engage in torture, BUT, we need to make an example of dog fighting? WTF? PETA has a good lobbyist working for them for sure.
And Dre, of course these guys deserve the money. They are entertainers. I guess you would be more down for the owners to reap all the profits from professional sports franchises? I know for sure I wouldn't.
Lou, I understand your torture analogy but I think it's misplaced. While I certainly don't condone torture, I don't know the first thing about protecting a country from a military or terror threat. At the very least, soldiers that engage in torture (as subjective as that term has become) can always claim that they did it with the intent of securing information that could mean saving thousands of lives. It's a much more complex philosophical debate. I think that's a bit different from a dude engaging in, and profiting from, the wholesale killing of animals. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from that outside of money and satisfaction for a bloodlust...it's also illegal, BTW. If he's guilty, he should be held accountable.
As for Donaghy, if it turns out that this was an isolated or even a couple of refs doing this, it wouldn't change anything for me. I wouldn't consider the sport to be tainted. I've had my issues with NBA refs for awhile but I also know that they have the most difficult job in the sport...so does David Stern. I don't see how you can completely protect yourself from something like this happening. Even the best, most profitable corporations in the world make mistakes in hiring people. It's a cost of doing business. If it turns out that multiple refs, coaches and players are involved then that would change things for me. But I'm not going to go nuts about one bad seed. Actually, I think it's getting blown way out of proportion given the information that's out now. But, hey, when has the media ever blown anything out of proportion?
Is, protecting our country from "extremists" aside, you know what this country's track record is as far as human rights go. Before and after Alberto Gonzalez and Bush, this country has and will continue to violate human rights. Like Chris Rock said, people hate this country because of the, "hypocrisy of this democracy", and this Vick case only makes that point/joke clearer. I'm only saying that given this country's track record with not only animals but other human beings, how can they justify the Vick case?
As for the Donaghy thing, you are completely right. It is next to impossible to prevent something like this from happening. You get a guy in there with a problem and hes able to hide it during interviews and his time on the job, its impossible to prevent him from betting and trying to fix games. IF its just him, and I mean IF, then this is just a blip. If anything, it will make this type of thing harder to happen again, at least for some time. If they uncover that its another couple of refs and/or players though, thats a pretty big deal and I do think that people would scream that theres a "dirty" ref or ump every time a call goes against their team. Think about what Esteban would scream. Excuse me, what he screams at the games BEFORE this thing happened. I don't think he'd be the only one and you know that Stern doesn't want his league to be the one that started people thinking about that happening.
Maybe there should be a seperate Michael Vick blog. Regarding your point about this country's track record with human rights as compared to the Vick case, I don't see the connection. If we were talking about this administration's stance against Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro, it'd be a different story. Michael Vick isn't a victim/martyr here. Should we not take corrective action on this type of thing because of this country's past trangressions? If that's the case, then no one should be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced for anything given how this country was founded and expanded. The fact that there are civil and animal rights laws on the books is at least an admission that what was done in the past was wrong; even if the law isn't always applied equitably.
Are media hordes all over this like the judgemental jackals they are? Yes. But he's in no way a victim here, even if his stance is that he didn't know about it. You mean you have a house in Atlanta that you own and stay in from time to time yet you have no idea that there's a major dog fighting circuit being housed in it? That sounds very shaky. I hope it's true because I'd hate to see the brother lose his career or, worse, go to jail. But if he's guilty, he should be held accountable. There's no way you can excuse something like this.
I'm glad someone else is really taking into consideration the cruelty factor of dog fighting. And I also completely agree with Is about it being pretty hard not know about this dog fighting operation that the feds are busting in a home that you own and hang in. Not to mention the testimony of people saying Vick was the "godfather of dog fighting", police informants saying that they have fought dogs against vick's dogs. Even with all this evidence, I still feel in my gut that he's gonna wiggle his way out of this.
There are a lot of people that sympathize with animals more than humans. Humans have defense mechanisms that animals who are being bred and forced to fight do not have the luxury of having. It is not natural for dogs, who are domesticated pack animals that, by nature, are friendly to their species, to be engaging in violent confrontations. These dogs become killers. How many times have we heard of a fighting dog turning on its owner, or killing a baby or some kid? There is no way around the cruelty issue.
And I don't think the FBI is going after Micheal Vick simply because he's micheal vick. I'm sure there are plenty of illegal dog fighting operations that are taken down on a regular basis that are just not as publicized because they are not playing quarterback for the falcons. I know personally of a cock fighting ring that was taken down a few years ago in jersey city because it involved a friend of mine's father. It happens. Vick was just the first high-profile person to be so dumb.
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