SUMMARY
- The status of the league was tarnished because of Tim Donaghy and the now-infamous '2007 NBA betting scandal,' came into existence.
- As per the investigation carried out by the FBI, he earned around $30,000 from betting on 100+ games during 2003-07.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is undeniably one of the most reputed and popular leagues in the basketball world. Every young player dreams of getting drafted into the league and works hard to make this possible. However, almost two decades ago, because of one person, Tim Donaghy, the prestigious status of the league was tarnished, and the now-infamous ‘2007 NBA betting scandal,’ came into existence.
The news of Donaghy who was an NBA referee at the time being investigated by the FBI for involvement in gambling spread everywhere in the summer of 2007. This caused panic among the fans, officials of the league, players, and anyone associated with the NBA as it raised doubts about the league’s integrity. It was suspected that Donaghy provided inside information to gamblers in exchange for money on winning bets.
Furthermore, the scandal is famously known as the ‘Tim Donaghy scandal’ and a Netflix documentary has also been made on this. The ‘Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul‘ documentary was released in 2022. This was the first time that all three who were involved, Donaghy and his two co-conspirators, Jimmy Baba Battista and Tommy Martino revisited the scandal and surprisingly their stories didn’t match completely.
Tim Donaghy reportedly earned around $30,000 from betting
Tim Donaghy was a part of the league for 13 seasons and was known as one of the toughest NBA referees and gained respect from the players he officiated and his peers. However, as his involvement in the gambling scandal came to the surface, his reputation was tarnished beyond repair. As per the investigation carried out by the FBI, he earned around $30,000 from betting on 100+ games during 2003-07.
Tim Donaghy Telling Us Everything We Know Already… All Sports Are Scripted And Rigged.. We Need To File A Class Action Lawsuit To Dig Up Information… Fanboyyyys Still Think Sports is Real…. #NBARigged pic.twitter.com/zMnBnB17V5
— ALL SPORTS ARE RIGGED 2023 (@FormerNFLFan789) June 13, 2023
In the documentary, Donaghy emphasized that he didn’t do it for the money as he was making $400k a year and didn’t need the extra money. It is also worth noting that he held his point strongly throughout the years that he just used his inside knowledge and picked out the team on which the money could be bet and did not officiate the games any differently.
The NBA has permanently banned Tim Donaghy
As the FBI started investigating the matter, the NBA started its own investigation. It was revealed that Tim Donaghy had been betting on games and providing inside information for money. As a result of violating the rules, the (now former) referee was suspended immediately and his resignation was received later. In addition to this, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison and had three years of supervision after bail.
Shortly after getting out of prison, Donaghy wrote a book titled ‘Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal That Rocked the NBA.’ He also made various appearances on shows podcasts, media channels, etc. to tell the story himself. Furthermore, he has been permanently banned from the league and can no longer have any kind of association with the NBA.