Who you gonna believe?While the NBA is focused on beginning another NBA season (and by the way, the TV ratings for the opening night were through the roof) former league referee Tim (the worm) Donaghy is doing his best to con unsuspecting lemmings out of another million bucks with his would-be book. If you want to understand my rant, simply read (please read) these excerpts.
I was going to post a story on Cassel overnight tonight, but since the Chiefs take on a bye this weekend (which, admittedly, doesn’t preclude a loss), I decided to push the Cassel story to Monday. In the meantime, I got a jolt of incredibly shocking ignorance tonight when more than one person off-handedly claimed they believed Donaghy’s comments (see link above).
RANT!!!
Ok, let me see if I have this straight. This bozo (Donaghy) admits to lying hundreds of times – frankly, probably thousands of times - in order to do what he says he has done (not what I say he has done, mind you… not what the NBA says he has done... not what the player’s association says he has done. Not even what the courts say he has done… ). No, what HE says he has done. Now, after that, some people choose to believe what he says in his book – despite no evidence other than his words.
If you can explain the logic behind that, you are a genius. Clearly, there is no logic. The only explanation can be that these people are predisposed to believing anything negative about the NBA. Either that or they are predisposed to believing anything negative about officials in sports. And, even if you think they are buffoons and make a ridiculous number of bad calls (see baseball playoffs), there is an ocean of difference between that and conspiring to throw games!
And, if it isn’t anti-NBA or anti-Referee mentality at work then it must be they are predisposed to believing conspiracies exist all around us. Undoubtedly, they believe a missile hit the Pentagon, WTC1 and WTC2 were brought down by pre-planted bombs, and the vaccine for H1N1 is a secret weapon to depopulate the earth. I could rant all day on the nut jobs.
If someone had lied hundreds of times to you (Donaghy admits as much), and he came up to you and said your house was on fire, would you drop what you were doing and run home? Of course not! Why? Because you have no reason on earth to believe a liar and you have no predisposed reason to assume your house was vulnerable to fire.
Tim Donaghy has been in jail, his career in shambles. He can never work another day as a sports official. Can Wal-Mart greetership be far behind? Well, if he can make up a bunch of imaginary events and convince enough sheep to believe it, he can continue to pursue a life far beyond his means.
I could have written those excerpts myself in 30 minutes at 3AM last night and I’ve never set foot on an NBA court! His word means NOTHING. Anyone who blindly chooses to believe him – believe someone who has admitted to hundreds of lies about the NBA already – someone who has proven that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make an illicit buck… is a roomn (unjumble).
The NBA already wasted a bunch of time investigating his claims and came to the conclusion he acted alone. I’m supposed to believe this scum bag when reputable people like David Stern deny it? Where’s the proof. Surely he has some. If he can write an entire book on this stuff, surely he has something other than his “good” name.
I can just see the NBA big wigs sitting around in a room conspiring about who is going to officiate what game based on what outcome they hope to get and involving dozens of NBA referees hoping they won’t yell “The gig is up!” Ludicrous doesn’t even begin to describe it! These same roomns stated categorically that the NBA would have Cleveland beat Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals last season because… “That’s what they want.” Of course, Orlando won in six games.
One thing I have learned in my years of debate – roomn’s credo: “Don’t let facts stand in the way of a good bias.”
COULD IT BE TRUE?
Of course. Anything is possible. Could there be aliens working underground? Could O’Bama have been born in Kenya? Could the US escape devaluing the dollar at some point? Like I say, anything is possible … Well, ok, the last one is impossible, but you know what I mean.
It’s just beyond any rational deductive reasoning to conclude (with zero evidence other than his word) that a habitual liar is (this time) telling the truth. I’m shocked that anyone I personally know would accept it at face value.
I realize the argument is made (or going to be made) that he’s referring to game X or game Y – and sure enough, there was a big disparity in (let’s say free throws) in games X or Y. So what! I can find hundreds of games where there were big disparities in FT’s and then make up anything I want to about it after the fact.
This scumbag is a cheat and a con artist. He has zero credibility and his words mean less than the paper they are written on. I was going to say anyone who feels compelled to go out and waste their hard-earned money to support his latest scam, deserves what they get – a good book of fiction… but the publisher pulled the plug on it Wednesday. Thankfully, someone has shown some objectivity. Hopefully, no other publisher will succumb to making a quick buck.
Whether many refs are involved or not, I saw a remark on ESPN where Donaghy said he used the bias and tendencies of refs to make bets as well. While you say his words can be dismissed because he has said that he has lied a lot, statistically you should be able to show a trend.
On another note, I saw some highlights where Labron James blocked a shot and knocked Rajon Rondo off the court while doing so with no foul. Another highlight (a couple actually) showed Kobe Bryant driving, doing some funny moves to get the ball to go in, and fouls were called both times when it appeared that he was not touched. Granted, small sample size, but it has been taken for granted that the refs give more leeway to the "stars" of the league. Jordan's shot against the Jazz in the finals is always shown as an example where he pushed the guy away from him to get a shot off.
I am interested if there are any statistics that show that the stars get more favorable calls (or non-calls) than other players. Also, if Donaghy was affecting a lot of games with his calls, there should be some statistics to show this as well. (maybe there already is and I missed it) As you said, any single game can show as an outlier, but if he did it enough, then his games should look differently than all the other refs in the league.