When the question is asked by a different reporter each day, the NBA gives a slightly different answer. But the crux of it is no different: With some sort of qualifier, such as “it is our current understanding,” or “it remains our understanding,” the league keeps saying that Tim Donaghy was the only referee betting on NBA games.
When ESPN Radio reported last Friday that Donaghy was set to name about 20 additional referees with gambling habits, the league said it had “no additional information” and declined to comment. It offered the same response to me when I pressed for a better answer on Saturday.
Then on Monday night, after other reporters around the country followed up again, NBA spokesman Tim Frank gave the following statement:
“There have been allegations that other referees violated NBA rules prohibiting casino gaming and the like, but it remains our understanding that Tim Donaghy is the only referee who bet on NBA games.”
This statement provided tacit acknowledgement of Donaghy’s allegations that some other refs may have gambled in casinos, which is against NBA rules. In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote in Sunday’s paper that casino gambling is prohibited for all NBA employees. That’s not true; the rule applies only to refs.
In any event, the basic facts as we know them haven’t changed. I am going to sound like an NBA spokesman, but as far as we know at this moment, Donaghy acted alone in this betting scandal and there were no other refs involved in anything similar. As Donaghy spills the beans over the next 2 1-2 months before his Nov. 9 sentencing, looking to buy himself less time in the hoosegow, time will tell if Commissioner David Stern was right about Donaghy being a “rogue, isolated criminal.”
As you might imagine, there is other NBA news besides Donaghy. Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com has been following Kobe Bryant around Las Vegas for a week or so, and he got some alone time with the disgruntled Lakes star on Monday as he walked toward the team bus after a Team USA practice. Sheridan is the master of asking the blunt, to-the-point question, a knack guys like Kobe appreciate.
Sheridan’s question: “Do you still want the Lakers to trade you?”
Kobe’s answer: “I’m not going to answer that question. The Lakers know exactly where I stand, and they’ve known exactly where I stand since the beginning of the summer.”
My interpretation: Kobe still wants to be traded, and he will play the ultimate trump card when he fails to show up at training camp in the first week of October.
Reading Kobe throughout this process has been harder than reading Tolstoy. He has dropped hints, reversed field, reversed back, leaving everyone guessing about his intentions and how this situation will play out.
A previous interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols was a perfect illustration, as outlined in Sheridan’s Kobe story.
Nichols: “You said one day you wanted to be traded, you said you wanted to be a ‘Laker for life.’ There were different phone calls back and forth.”
Bryant: “I think a lot of people misinterpreted it. But that’s water under the bridge to me, because going forward, we’re handling our situation between ourselves, meaning the Lakers organization and myself. If things, if things were to be different, we both would have handled the situation a little differently.”
What did Kobe mean by “water under the bridge?” I think he was referring to his emotional reaction, meaning that he regrets making his beef so public and nasty but doesn’t regret asking to be traded in the first place. Again, as far as we know, the official trade request given to Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak by agent Rob Pelinka back in May has yet to be retracted.
So there you have it: Something other than Tim Donaghy news will play out in a significant way between now and the start of the 2007-08 season. Which story is more interesting to you?
One last nod to starburyfan, who writes that I deserve credit if the Knicks trade for Ron Artest because I was pushing that story first this summer. ‘Preciate ya for noticing, starburyfan. I’ll give you a line that Herman Edwards used all the time when I covered the Jets: “If you want credit, go to the bank.” But I’ll take credit any way I can get it. Keep the comments coming.
Comments (6)
Ken:
Frankly, I'm only interested in the Kobe saga if he has a shot of coming to the Knicks, which I believe he does.
The Donaghy story is interesting if he rats out the other refs for sports betting or if another NBA ref gave him info unknowingly. Some of these guys are total hacks, like Javie and Joey Crawford and I wouldn't mind Stern expelling them. As far as Donaghy and game-fixing goes, I should point out that
Donaghy is not responsible for the horrendous Knicks free throw shooting, endgame defensive lapses, and the neverending pattern of going down by 25 in the first half, then rallying in the 3rd and 4th only to lose in the end.
I agree, Darren. If Kobe turns this up a notch and sits out training camp, the Lakers will have little choice but to try to satisfy his trade demand. With a no-trade clause, Kobe could steer himself wherever he wanted to go. And as far as I'm concerned, Chicago and New York are the only two places. If Kobe makes this really interesting, I think the Knicks have a real chance to make a competitive play for him. Hardly anyone is talking about this because they refuse to believe it, but you obviously have enough vision to recognize the possibilities. Welcome aboard.
Thanks for responding Ken.
RIP to Eddie Griffin. What an awful story, his truck collided with a train down in Houston.
so Ken, all things considered, who's got a better chance of landing on the knicks at some point this season, Artest or Kobe?
Which player would be a better fit for New York in terms of making the playoffs and kicking some ass for once?
I realize we'd be giving up more to get Kobe than Artest.
I was going to mention that artest's image may have hurt his trade vaule--it is interesting to note that kobe at one point in time had pr problems as well. Throw in Latrell and you start to see a pattern here. Second chance city? In Artest's case, it would be his second second chance, something Sprewell got when he went to Minny.
starburyfan,
first of all, given your screen name, I would be remiss not to ask for your thoughts on steph's recent comments about michael vick and dog fighting. do you think he just wasn't thinking? or do you think the small-time TV reporters in Albany tried to bait him and make him look bad? curious to get your take.
as for your artest-kobe question: at this point, I would say artest is by far the more likely of the two to wind up wearing a knicks uni next season. all parties want it to happen, which usually means that one way or another, it will happen. I still maintain that the knicks have as good a chance as anybody -- better than most, in fact -- to pull off a kobe blockbuster if in fact kobe goes the holdout route and makes it clear that he will refuse to play for the lakers next season. but there are too many variables, including the biggest unknown, as in what exactly is kobe thinking, to give him the edge over artest. thanks for posting.
Ken, lets not forget, the guy is a basketball player, he's not a political leader, so why is everyone getting SO bent out of shape out of a few spoken words?
Vick's actions were horrible, don't get me wrong. I understand the public outcry on that front.
For all I know Ken, it could have been Nike that asked Stephon that question. It simultaneously takes some of the heat off of Vick, and also could hurt Starbury shoe sales. They could have paid someone to sneak that question in and hope for the worst. They already have LeBron talking smack about Starbury shoes. You never know-- I'm in the dark about WHY they asked him about it. They know he at times interviews poorly, yet they went for that question, a hard question for even the most well-spoken of the NBA or any sport to comment on. Nobody is touching that question right now. I personally wouldn't tackle that subject on the fly, I'd have to think about my answer for a while. But I think he was just trying to stick up for a guy he felt was being persecuted. That's not to say Vick didn't do anything wrong. He definitely did, and should be punished, he broke the law.
I used to do interviews in my college days and my sports writing professor told us to ask anything, but it just doesn't make sense to me whey they'd bring up vick at a basketball sneaker promo tour. I find it even more mysterious that nobody--well maybe you know, but I sure don't--knows who asked Steph this left field question. In recent interviews I've noticed stephon is trying to say no comment to avoid saying things that can hurt him (since the best point guard in the nba interview of 2 years ago), but I guess he felt like sticking up for a guy who at this time last year was admired and praised more than anybody else in NFL. Until very recently, he was their Air Jordan, wasn't he?
I think stephon is going through some kind of spiritual experience right now, and he feels very fearless and open about his opinion. That can be dangerous for his image, because he's got cameras on him everywhere he goes, and he's not a rocket scientist, he's a basketball player.
Would I have answered candidly they way he did? no. He messed up, as is evidenced by his backtracking the next day. But opinions change like the weather, so I'm not sure why he'd have to backtrack, besides people being so damn politically correct these days.
And I was a strict vegetarian for 9 full years, just quit last december, incidentally. I love animals, and think dog-fighting should not be a sport, blood-sport, underground sport, ect.
the moniker of starburyfan was one i picked up early last season because of my support for stephon and his shoe company during the rough transition of learning how to run the ball through eddy curry--you recall when he was getting booed at the garden nightly; with all this crap, it might happen again this season.
But you've got a good idea of my perspective on it, I do think the guy's opinion was in accord with that of my own, of course--but that was a devious question. How come we still don't know who asked it? I wonder if that person feels a little sleazy right about now. I wonder if that person now has a lifetime supply of Nike sent to him personally by Warren Buffet.
these blogs illustrate how much opinion can vary from one person to the next, so I don't see why everyone got so riled up over comments made-especially since he wasn't fighting the dogs himself.
Its just a shame that it has come to this, stephon and the knicks don't need anymore negative karma around them going into yet another pressure cooker season. But they brought it upon themselves. Alan thinks its going to be a great season (don't know if he meant for newsday or for Knick fans), I'm just hoping we kick Chicago and New Jersey's ass and actually make the playoffs this year.
Enjoy your vacation buddy. Maybe by the time you come back, there will be a new Knick on the roster to take up dead weight Jerome James's spot.