With word Tuesday that Lawrence Pedowitz, the former federal prosecutor who has authored a report on the NBA officiating scandal, isn't ready to release it yet, a simple question was raised: What is he waiting for?
Pedowitz, commissioned by the NBA to conduct the top-to-bottom review, said in a statement released after Tim Donaghy was sentenced this afternoon that he was "conducting additional interviews" and hopes to "obtain additional information from the government. My review is well-advanced but not complete. I have no final date at this time for the issuance of my report.”
The NBA and its commissioner, David Stern, have promised for months that the so-called Pedowitz Report would be released after Donaghy's legal case had run its course. That course has been run, and still, no report.
One possibility occurred to me even before Pedowitz released his statement today. Perhaps he was holding out hope that he could interview Donaghy before releasing his report.
As Donaghy's attorney, John Lauro, walked back into the Brooklyn federal courthouse after blistering Stern and the league in his post-sentencing news conference, I asked him if Donaghy had any obligation to speak with anyone from the NBA now that the case was over.
"None whatsoever," Lauro said.
Asked if Donaghy might be inclined to speak with Stern, Pedowitz, or anyone else from the NBA prior to beginning his prison sentence, Lauro said, "We don't have any intention to do that at this time."