 On Tuesday, July 29, NBA referee Tim Donaghy, convicted after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to engage in wire fraud, as well as taking payoffs for insider information that influenced gambling, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three additional years of supervised release. As reported by the Associated Press and ESPN, the sentencing should close the legal book on the most notorious officiating scandal in the history of the Association. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Paul Harvey, there might still be “the rest of the storyâ€. While Commissioner David Stern continues to state that Donaghy is the only guilty party, he had promised the release of the findings (of the league-wide investigation that supported the prosecution) once the sentencing was complete. Now that the final sentence has been handed down, there is still no firm date for release of the information. ESPN’s Marc Stein reported on Tuesday that the Pedowitz report, “…so named after former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz (who) was hired to commission the NBA's investigation in the wake of the Donaghy scandal -- will not be immediate.â€Â Pedowitz evidently needs time to refine the report before distributing to the public.  This is, in the wake of the scrutiny levied on Major League Baseball’s “Mitchell Reportâ€, probably prudent, but delay will inevitably fan the embers of suspicion and doubt among conspiracy theorists. The contents of the Pedowitz report are unknown, but it ought to be released before the 2008/09 season opener.  Pedowitz interviewed every official in the league, with the exception of Donaghy. Permission to speak to the latter was repeatedly denied by federal officials, and the lack of access has frustrated the NBA’s effort to understand the full breadth of the issues. David Stern noted, " ... That investigation, with respect to all our officials, has been completed, [But] the report itself is not ready to be issued because it was always contemplated that it would be done after Mr. Donaghy was sentenced and against the hope that the request made several months ago from Mr. Donaghy's lawyer that he meet with Mr. Pedowitz would be responded to in a positive way." Donaghy’s statement is critical, as he has already alleged that NBA executives occasionally used referees to manipulate game results, thus ticket sales. Stern flatly denies those charges, saying on June 10, "The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one that's guilty of a crime." The NBA has not waited for the Pedowitz report to act. The league has already hired an outsider, retired Army General Ronald Johnson, to oversee referee operations, reassigned former director of officials Ronnie Nunn within the organization, and removed reassigned officiating responsibilities from VP of basketball operations Stu Jackson.
 OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
Bill Johnson is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network
|
