Fresh out of federal prison, former NBA ref Tim Donaghy is about to ride his second wave of fame. The tell-all book on his gambling scandal is out officially on Dec. 5, but you can get it right now online. And his first big television interview airs this Sunday on "60 Minutes."
Donaghy, the good little catholic boy from Delaware County, says he never fixed games but helped gamblers bet on basketball for years before being caught by the FBI.
"I didn't need a roll of the dice, a flip of the coin, a spin of the wheel, a turn of the card, or a Ouija board. All I needed was the NBA's daily Master List of Referees," Donaghy writes in the book, Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal That Rocked the NBA.
Donaghy says he picked games based on the personalities of other refs in the league, because he understood how their "tendencies, quirks, patterns, and prejudices" affected their calls on the court. He names names -- calling out at least two dozen refs that Donaghy claims either allowed their friendships or feuds to influence their calls, according to Daily News Sports Columnist Stan Hochman.
When it came to big players like Allen Iverson, Donaghy again used the attitude gauge. He looked at which refs were working the game and claims he made picks based on whether those guys liked Iverson or not.
"Almost every referee on the staff had an occasional agenda that could affect the outcome of a particular game," Donaghy claims.
Generally, star players got away with a lot more, he says.
“We would never call these types of fouls on superstars, just on the average players who didn’t have star status. It was important to keep the stars on the floor.”
The sports blog, Deadspin posted "excerpts from the book the NBA doesn't want you to read," last month. The league has said it will look into the allegations Donaghy makes in his memoir.
Get More: Philadelphia Daily News, New York Times, Deadspin
