Tim Donaghy refused to take a polygraph test in 2009 on whether he fixed NBA games because he would fail it. Donaghy has publicly denied fixing games, but he has taken a different position privately at times.
Researchers found that his foul calls favored the team that was bet on more heavily 77 percent of the time in the 30 games that were deemed competitive during that stretch.
In those 30 games, Donaghy’s calls favored the team he bet on 23 times, went against the team he bet on three times and were neutral four times.
The NBA released a statement revealing that it did not come to the same conclusion after doing extensive research in its own right:
“To be clear, the Pedowitz team and the NBA performed substantial statistical and data-based analyses to determine whether Donaghy attempted to manipulate games he officiated. All of our efforts were focused on understanding precisely what he did and how he did it so we would be best equipped to protect the integrity of our games going forward. … These analyses did not support [ESPN’s] finding that an unbiased official would not have made the calls that Donaghy did.”
"You wanna get paid? Then you gotta cover the f—— spread."
This is the never-before-told inside story of how Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games: https://t.co/6p4Tohv3vV
— ESPN (@espn) February 19, 2019
Per an account in New York magazine in 2015, the NBA somehow persuaded Random House to kill Donaghy’s memoir.
Donaghy then found another publisher: a small, independent, newly established outfit run by Shawna Vercher.
Someone needs to make a movie out of this.
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