Former prosecutor to represent NBA referees in league review

By Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA — A former federal prosecutor tapped to represent NBA referees in the league's review of its officiating counseled five referees interviewed by the FBI during the Tim Donaghy probe.
The five had no inkling that Donaghy was betting on games, lawyer Gregory T. Magarity said.

"They all knew him. They all reffed with him. But none of them knew anything about illegal gambling," Magarity said Thursday from his office in Philadelphia.

"He was doing this stuff from pay phones, calling bets into somebody. Nobody saw anything; no one suspected anything like that," Magarity said.

NBA commissioner David Stern plans a sweeping review of league officiating in the wake of this summer's betting scandal, in which Donaghy pleaded guilty to betting on games and providing inside information to others. The NBA has hired former federal prosecutor Lawrence B. Pedowitz to oversee the effort.

Magarity likely will negotiate terms of the review with Pedowitz and represent the referees' union and any referees interviewed during the process, he said.

He does not expect any further legal fallout, and questioned the source of reports that Donaghy will name 20 colleagues involved in casual - but perhaps impermissible - gambling activities.

"His credibility would be highly suspect at the least," Magarity said. "I don't know who he supposedly told that 20 referees gambled legally - whatever that means. It could be they bought a Powerball ticket."

He said he believes Donaghy's was an isolated case of someone intentionally breaking the law out of greed. Nonetheless, he understands the league's decision to conduct a review.

"This was a major scandal that rocked the NBA. It certainly rocked the referees association," Magarity said. "They want to take a look at everything ... to try to prevent anything like this from ever happening again."

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This just about gave it away how the NBA is trying to isolate this corruption. Former refs Hollis and Matthis made stern a little uncomfortable in some recent paper reports.

David Stern is talking BIG in a crowd again!! As much as he wants to "be protective" of this current group of referees...one needs to keep in mind that he thought Donaghy was one of his "model citizens" until the FEDS moved in!!"

And just to be sure we keep it ALL in context, what Stern seems to be upset with is; "The former referees the commissioner spoke of were Mike Mathis and Hue Hollins, who have been critical in some recent newspaper stories of the current state of the profession under director of officials Ronnie Nunn."

Now...I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but when one of your employees is about to get sentenced to 25 years in jail and he's willing to give up 20 other people who "may or may not have" engaged in levels of gambling that could be deemed "questionable" how could you NOT expect the director of officials to be criticized.

Mr. Stern has some BIG TIME housekeeping to do before the season starts. And I'm SURE that waiting to hear what the refs have to say about their "gambling practices" is about as reassuring as listening to a crook say "I didn't do it!" I mean, what's the benefit of coming out and saying "OH YEAH, David!! I've been LIVING on the black jack table in A.C.!!" If they've got nothing to hide...then this is a "no-brainer"! And if they do have something to hide
Stern's ONLY saving grace in this entire mess is that Mike Vick has been flying cover for him on the sports pages for the last couple of months!!

Mike Matthis :If you feel like your bosses are going to cover your (butt) on everything that comes up about your job performance, well, eventually you're bound to feel like no one can touch you. ... They've fostered this environment with these officials," the GM said, "and now they have to deal with the fallout."





To think Donahy is going to snitch on them buying lottery tickets or playing bingo is so silly, it was bigger than that!



[Edited by - playa2 on 04-09-2007 07:10]