Organi$ed Crime / NBA, M.D. August 15, 2007
Posted by boydzone in : points, sports , trackbackAssociated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Former referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to two felony charges Wednesday in an NBA betting scandal that rocked the league and raised questions about the integrity of games.
Tim Donaghy, a long time Beastie Boys fan, strolled into a courthouse this morning and declared to the judge “Kenny Rogers’ Gambler is my gambling theme”. As Mr. Rogers has stated “You have to know when to hold em/know when to fold em/know when to walk away/know when to run”. Donaghy seems to have taken the safest route possible, not just for himself, but for the NBA and for whomever else he was involved with in his gambling. He’s opted to fold em and walk away, potentially sparing the NBA millions of dollars and millions of fans, and possibly saving Donaghy his life.
As far as organized crime goes, there seems to be an age old debate over where crime and business begin and end.
Sure, there are laws in place that are there to set the boundaries of our behavior, but we’ve all also been witness to these laws being bent and penalties softened depending on who the law breakers are [please google- War, the history of Microsoft, baseball rules (base running) for more info] .
NBA franchise owners pay hundreds of millions of dollars to own their teams. According to Forbes Magazine online, Daniel Gilbert paid $375 in 2005 to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers and teams bring in roughly 1/3rd of this a year in revenue. Multiply that by 30 teams and it doesn’t take long to see how much money is at stake here.
If the legitimacy of the sport was questioned in a wide-spread fashion, it would be a extremely costly problem, more so than you or I could probably imagine. On top of that, if you add that to the number of dollars that were won by Donaghy’s gambling partners, which is most likely not as much as is earned by the NBA each year, but still considerable, and you have quite a monstrous sum of money.
I’m sure this monster would gladly chow down 25 years of one mans life (Donaghy’s max sentence) in order to sustain itself.
Now, I really have no idea how organize crime works, but I have seen some cinematic portrayals.
In these movies, its most frequently based on Sicilian Mafia, and there often is a legitimate business/front for the operation (team/league), that generates taxable income. Next, there is either an attempt to monopolize their field of interest (NBA vs CBA?) or a side business that brings income in under the radar (gambling). There also is a Don (commissioner) who kind of calls the shots, and reaps the most benefits, but also at the council of his underbosses (franchise owners) who also benefit.
Gambling is illegal in most states, and fixing games is considered fraud. So, if Donaghy is guilty of participating in game fixing or gambling that might influence his implied neutral judgment of a game, then the best thing that the NBA can do is to convince the public and the government that a “rogue, isolated criminal” (Commissioner Stern’s words) was at work in this scandal. I’m sure that they have the power to convince Donaghy that it is his responsibility/safest option to take the blame as the business men involved in owning these teams are there to make money. They wouldn’t get involved and wouldn’t spend the money to own these teams if there was any other reason at play. I’m sure they’re also fans of the game, but that does not necessarily mean that they’re fans of, friends with, or the least bit concerned over the fate of one ref, especially if it takes their investment out of jeopardy.
In this case, the least suspicious way of eliminated the accused ref from the public eye would be for him to disappear. Since there is federal attention to this case, the most legally satisfying way would be for him to be locked up for a couple decades.
According to the Associated Press article on the subject, Donaghy “is taking an antidepressant and anxiety medication” , which I can imagine is better tasting than the medicine Dr. Mafia, or Daniel Stern, M.D. would prescribe if he were to take more than a couple other goons down with him. Considering the sway that big time money has on our government and society (see my “Say it Ain’t so Vino” post / second to last paragraph), I would not doubt that they NBA made their case very convincingly to Donaghy. Probably convincingly enough that he felt like he was less likely to wake up next to a severed horse’s head (or worse) in jail.
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