"Tip of the iceberg" Former NBA ref Tim Donaghy joins! The Greg Hill Show!

WEEI-FM / WEEI

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00:00the nba and your perspective on whether this is just the tip of the iceberg or uh whether or not

00:07it's just these guys that uh that that are involved here uh definitely the tip of the

00:14iceberg i can tell you from personal experience with my situation uh they put me in a room

00:20while my attorneys met with united states attorneys and fbi agents and in that room i sat by myself and

00:26stacked to the ceiling where boxes all mark john gotty trial and on a whiteboard was crimes that

00:33may have pertained to me gambling five to ten years racketeering five to ten years money laundering

00:38five to ten years and really before i could get my thoughts together everybody entered the room and

00:43phil scala who was a supervisory special agent for the gambino crime family pointed his finger

00:49in my face and said that he had got john gotty and if i thought i was going to lie to him that i was

00:54better off getting up and leaving right away and you know with that i told him everything i did who

01:00i did it with and how i did it and um you know when you're looking at many years in prison i think these

01:05guys are going to sit down with the fbi and also tell what they did who they did it with and how

01:11they did it and it's going to be widespread tim the thing that fascinates me is how there was some

01:18movement and comments from adam silver in advance of this cash patel press conference with the

01:24indictments and arrests made how aware do you believe the nba was at the um the the charges

01:32that were eventually filed by cash patel 100 were aware of what was going on the nba back to the

01:40days of david stern was always one step ahead of everybody um going back again to my case they signed

01:47the tv deal um you know worth billions of dollars when they in fact knew that uh the scandal had broken it

01:54wasn't public knowledge yet so yeah they're very smart attorneys they know exactly what they're

01:59doing uh and and they definitely knew about this prior to it leaking tim do you feel like the like

02:05you said the tip of the iceberg do you feel like the things that will come out moving forward are

02:09going to be like more players that were betting on themselves when it came to prop bets or do you

02:15think it's going to be more of the coaches giving tips like we kind of saw with damon jones situation

02:21i think it's all the above i think there's going to be more players involved i think there's going

02:26to be more coaches involved uh i think in the past uh nba was uh able to cover things up and was able

02:34to get involved in investigations and squash them i don't think that is the case this time i think this

02:39guy patel is all business and he's not somebody that can be bought and in the past david stern was

02:45able to buy different people off of them jobs uh you know again going back to my case uh there was

02:52the united states attorney that left three months after i went to prison and took a job at a law firm

02:57and then all of a sudden started getting all the outside legal counsel work for the nba so uh you know

03:03that's something that i believe is a thing of the past and i think this thing is going to explode do you

03:09the the advent of the legalized gambling platforms does the does that make it more likely that guys

03:17are are going to give tips to others or less likely in your mind i think it's more likely everybody's

03:25gambling everyone's enjoying it everybody's looking for an edge and when you know somebody that's uh

03:30in a position of power you know you're going to try to get out of them what you can and sometimes

03:36maybe even unwilling you you're going to give a tip but you know it's a way to really stop all this

03:40with the prop bets is only uh you know have the bets um can be taken on the over not the under so

03:47this way nobody can fake an injury or do something to the point where you know a bet would cash because

03:54somebody did something illegally and you know it makes everybody play hard and try to get the over

04:00tim when it comes to the mob being related to this how do these players coaches get involved

04:05this deep into a mob family to then bring others into uh partaking whether it's a poker game or

04:11tipping people off you know again from experience with myself i went to high school with a couple

04:18people that were involved with uh organized crime and uh i just met him for lunch one day and next thing

04:25i knew uh people were coming that were associated with organized uh crime and i was in a car and i was

04:31being threatened uh because of something i had done in the past uh while gambling and they knew

04:36that my contract with the nba said that i couldn't place a bet of any kind and they were going to expose

04:42me uh to the nba and i would lose my job or worse yet had somebody visit my wife and kids in florida so

04:48these guys are guys that don't mess around don't play around and when they want something they're going to get

04:54it from you if there is a temptation or a fear for guys like terry rogier or chauncey billups who are

05:02making millions of dollars would you assume that the temptation or fear is more for nba officials who

05:09are not making that much money you know i think it all comes down to who you're you know allowed in

05:16your inner circle and when you allow these guys in your inner circle they have ways of uh you know

05:22creeping in and and slowly but surely getting the hooks into you so uh you know the the money doesn't

05:28matter i think the money is great whether you're an nba referee or you're an nba player and for me

05:34it's just a situation where i started gambling and i got in too deep and uh i started getting involved

05:40and hanging out with the wrong people and the next thing you know i'm giving tips that i shouldn't be

05:44given tim you know i i just am fascinated by the the biggest names which are so far left out

05:50obviously chauncey blows the hall of famer coach of portland and terry rozier but the damon jones

05:55component of this investigation that we heard about last week is the most interesting to me because

06:01of the tentacles with lebron james is there any way the nba will allow lebron james to be brought into this

06:10you know i would think not but i don't think that uh they're going to have a say i think when you look

06:16at otani and major league baseball uh do you think there's any way that he didn't know 25 to 30 million

06:21dollars was missing out of his bank account no i mean i find that to be comical but yet you know all

06:27of a sudden he he had no wrongdoing in the whole situation so i believe that uh you know this is going

06:33to be widespread i don't think the nba is going to have any any say and i think it's going to be

06:38extremely damaging i just on the shohei thing like how i know that how they did because nobody

06:44wants it to come out because the players union doesn't want it the owners don't want it the tv

06:48networks don't want it so i get it but that that sting and that amount of money to be siphoned off

06:54over years is impossible to be done without the person knowing i agree with you 100 and i find it

07:01actually comical that they sold that to the general public and then uh you know all just you know

07:06smacked their hands and said you know it's over and we're just supposed to all you know think that

07:12that's the truth i think it's actually comical well but that's exactly what the nba did here with their

07:19own investigation on this correct i mean if not for the fbi the nba had also investigated this and

07:26said there was there was nothing to it absolutely and they think that you know that's okay that

07:32whatever they come out and say that the public's going to believe and we're going to move on and

07:37act like you know something didn't happen and you know i'm here to tell you this time it's not going

07:41to happen it's kind of like how the nba uh still uh employs scott foster like nothing ever happened

07:46like he wasn't talking to you 200 times i mean it's amazing to me yeah he was a good friend

07:55and it's also interesting yeah you know because we were talking about uh other leagues talking about the

08:00nfl talking about officials and calls they make and it's it doesn't have to be you know this better

08:07than anybody um because of what i have read about the way you guys would sometimes do things it doesn't

08:13have to be uh like in your face this call is made at the end of the end of the game you guys would

08:20oftentimes if i'm correct uh you know take somebody that uh is going to be a meaningful player and and

08:27hit them with a with a foul early in the game so as to set that up for later on am i am i correct

08:33about kind of that strategy there were lots of times uh star players would bang somebody across

08:39the head and you'd give the the foul to some you know five foot ten white guy you know standing next

08:45to him because you didn't want to give that star player you know fouls that were going to send him

08:49to the bench and he would openly discuss that um you know people didn't pay hundreds of thousands of

08:54dollars to sit courtside to watch guys like michael jordan lebron james and shaquille o'neal

08:59to sit on the bench so you would avoid giving them fouls at all costs what information do you believe

09:05adam silver is working behind the scenes to conceal like what is the most damaging element of this that

09:11that could be released in an investigation by the fbi you know i think it's released i think when you

09:17talk about rosier you know leaving a game so that an under bet would hit you know you're basically

09:23compromising the integrity of the game and uh you know it's out and he's not he's not going to be

09:29able to put the the lid back on the can and they have a major major problem because you know people

09:35bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on these games they they love the action of the of the nba and

09:40the integrity of the game is is compromised and you don't go to a game uh you know without the

09:46intent of it being a fair playing field for for both teams and and all players and obviously in the nba

09:52it's not tim i i don't know if you have the answer to this but is there any part of you that doubts

09:58just how quickly the celtics were able to get garnett allen and then the lakers trade for gasol in the

10:04year after the worst nba finals ratings ever where your scandal broke the celtics and lakers somehow

10:10miraculously meet in the nba finals as a means to get the attention back and the viewers back into the nba

10:16no there's no doubt i remember when david stern was being interviewed on tv and the reporter said to

10:22him you know what's your marquee matchup in the nba finals and he said it with a grin but he said the

10:28lakers versus the lakers i mean the arrogance of him to sit there and say that on national tv again

10:34it is something that's uh it's comical and it's a slap to the face of all these other fans that are in

10:39sacramento and and milwaukee that are you know trying to get uh to an nba championship kind of

10:46like how dallas trades their best player and then gets cooper flag is that what you're talking about

10:51tim yeah exactly tim i think it's been really interesting the way that you've talked about

10:57the college game coming into this like how things could unfold with younger players being tempted with

11:02money to fix games we've seen it happen in the past um curtis and i both went to boston college

11:06um how do you prevent this from snowballing you know i think education you have to get in front of

11:14these kids and you have to let them know uh you know they're going to ruin their lives if in fact they

11:18go down this road and they get involved with these people that they shouldn't be involved with

11:23and uh you know not only did i lose my job i lost my family and i lost my freedom so uh it's a situation

11:29where the the um you know punishment is is very severe and if you do get caught it's going to be very

11:35severe so you're better off staying away from it tim i did some time too in the in the clinton jail

11:41uh about three hours uh when i was 18 i was scared straight it worked for you as well right

11:48yeah tried doing 15 months and 15 days in solitary confinement yeah it works well

11:54all right well listen thank you thank you very much for taking the time this morning interesting

11:58stuff from you so uh we'll uh i'm sure we may have the chance to have you on again and we appreciate

12:03taking the time this morning great thank you all right that is tim donaghy

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