You know that we like to go just a little beyond the original story with links and insight that are a little deeper than the story itself.
With that said, we ran across this blog entry that includes some links to the news stories if you have an interest in following them.
There is a ton of good stuff in the entry. Just take a look at just one of the answers of the interviewee:
As far as the retroactive analysis in the article you linked to goes, some of the line moves that are mentioned the line moves were due to injuries. After the scandal broke I have done a lot of research regarding what games were likely fixed and which ones weren’t. I have also made some contacts with some bookmakers who have given me information on some of the games Donaghy bet — some of the stuff in that article is just conjecture and speculation, but some of it is accurate.
I can say with a large degree of certainty that this game was one of the more blatant fixes. That Phoenix vs. New York game was a game that I was told was bet by the crew associated with [alleged Donaghy co-conspirator James “Baa Baa”] Batista, it was also a game where Phoenix shot 14 free throws in regulation and New York shot 36.
There aren’t that many games in the last five or six years where a team had a 20 point free throw edge. In a sample of 6,373 games I show there being 167 games where the home team shot 20 more free throws than the visiting team, and 78 where the visiting team shot more. I hate trotting out numbers to prove my point because you can cherry-pick whatever statistics you want, but I think if someone with an objective eye goes and watches this game, focusing on Donaghy especially they’ll come away thinking that it was pretty clear the Knicks got a huge advantage in the game.
Here are couple of other Tim Donaghy games that may make for some interesting viewing. Miami at New York on February 26, 2007. There was a 39 to eight free throw disparity in that one.
Tim Donaghy refereed a 2003 Knicks at Lakers game that had a 47 to six free throw disparity.
In a 2006 Orlando at Utah game refereed by Tim Donaghy, there were two technicals called against Orlando in the final two seconds of the game.
Most of the information I have about Donaghy is from the 2006-2007 season and its plain as day to me that Donaghy did change the outcome of the games, I don’t see how any rational human being could argue otherwise.
Additionally, this link from our original entry on this story in the summer of 2007 also includes quite a few links to past entries regarding some college officials that would be of interest.
Lastly…this is what we call a tease… a member of the SFN community has written a fascinating analysis analyzing a proposed betting system tied to the officiating of an Atlantic Coast Conference referee that would be quite relevant for us to run in today’s environment. Stay tuned over the next week or so as we work on bringing it to the blog.
