‘60′ of Donaghy
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So Tim Donaghy made his appearance on ‘60 Minutes’ on Sunday.
It wasn’t too enlightening. To sum up: He started betting on NBA games the last four years, simply by knowing the relationships of other referees with players, coaches and owners of certain teams. He claims that his actual officiating was “honest” and that he did not need to fix games because he knew those aforementioned relationships would lead way for victory for the team he bet on.
Donaghy was correct on 75 -80 percent of his bets, an estimate the FBI proved to be correct. He admits doing wrong and making poor choices, but was too enamored by the highs of gambling to actually realize he was doing something that could lead to trouble. When the mob found out how correctly he was getting bets through a friend, they drew his services by threatening they would “visit” his family in Florida if he did not cooperate.
It was through tracking of the mob that the FBI realized a NBA referee was behind all of this. Donaghy claims he made $100,000 off the bets, whereas the mob ended up with….(Click here to read more at the official HoopScribe webpage)
The role of the white American in the NBA
ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” recently did a piece on the decreasing role of the white American in the NBA.
The stats read like this: 71 percent of today’s NBA players are African American. Eighteen percent are foreign. Only 9.9 percent are white American.
The piece tries to find an answer for why the white American has struggled to find a role in today’s game. While the number of African Americans have stayed the same since the 1980s or so, the number of white Americans has dwindled.
The answer, in all likelihood, is that today’s game is no longer founded upon the fundamentals of the game like it was during the Magic-Bird era, and surely before that.
Today’s game is based upon athleticism, potential and raw skill. While it’s not hard to see why basketball officials see those traits in African Americans, white Americans, apparently, are plagued with the labels of being poor defensively. There is a stigma attached to them which they cannot escape, and judgments are made well before they are seen on the court, or atleast before a consistent period of professional competition.
They’re “slow” and surely not as athletic as their African American counterparts, or that’s at least the sentiment of the pros. The piece mentions that only one white American (Kirk Hinrich) has been named to a NBA all-defensive team over the last 12 years.
As Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy says, “Name one (white American) that has proved that ’stigma’ wrong.” It’s certainly difficult to do so.
As for white foreign players, they’re not so much more athletic than white Americans as much as they spend more time honing their skill, craft and receiving solid coaching from an early age.
That’s not the case for white Americans, as the piece says, as once they hit high school and college, there are only so many hours which they are allowed to practice.
Anyway, it makes for an interesting topic, and it’s definitely a great report:http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4718857&bn_r=ec&bn_g=au&bn_k=3
Making a 2nd debut
Article link: http://hoopscribe.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/making-a-2nd-debut/
Iverson made his second debut as a Sixer on Monday night.
37 minutes. 11 points. 4-11 shooting. 6 assists. 5 rebounds.
And a 10-point Philly loss at home.
Get used to it, A.I. fans!
