Book won’t let NBA betting scandal slip away like Lakers did

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The Lakers tanked. The Mavericks were magical. The Celtics are spent, and the Heat should win it all.

Of course, that's just my opinion. When it comes to the NBA playoffs, everyone has one.

In Las Vegas, there are only two pertinent questions on this subject: "Will we ever get an NBA franchise?" and "What's the line on tonight's game?"

I've been a fan since Kareem was Lew Alcindor, but the revelation in 2007 that NBA referee Tim "Elvis" Donaghy was up to his neck in betting slips was a turning point for me. The Donaghy scandal has changed the way I look at every game, but I'm sure the league would prefer everyone forget about it.

Thanks to Sean Patrick Griffin, that's not possible. His latest book, "Gaming the Game: The Story Behind the NBA Betting Scandal and the Gambler Who Made It Happen," is the impeccably researched tale of the Donaghy debacle as told by his street-wise gambling pal, Jimmy "The Sheep" Battista.

Battista is candid about his own failings, including his addiction to prescription drugs and voracious sports betting habit. His voice is credible throughout the story of how Donaghy, himself a gambling degenerate, wound up betting on dozens of games he officiated throughout the 2006-2007 season. Along the way, Battista gets sold out by childhood friend Tommy Martino and learns a hard lesson in negotiations from the U.S. attorney and FBI.

While the NBA's Pedowitz Report appears to downplay the damage the referee did, Griffin's research and insightful interviews tell a different truth. Although Griffin is an associate professor of Criminal Justice at Penn State Abington, his street-wise writing sounds anything but academic.

Las Vegas sharp guys will want to buy the book just for the references to our sports betting culture. Battista operated here before eventually returning to Philadelphia, where he first met Donaghy as a schoolboy. Here, again, Battista's street cred comes in handy.

It's the NBA's credibility that figures to take the biggest hit. Donaghy cut a deal with federal prosecutors and effectively helped the league save face, but at what cost?

Although neither the league nor the FBI managed to document evidence of game fixing, the street guys sure thought otherwise. Once Donaghy's personal daily basketball picks began to spread in an ever-widening circle, wiseguy gamblers and illegal bookmakers across the country noticed something: When he bet on games, he was officiating, he hit better than 70 percent of his picks. Betting lines on those games pumped like a palpitating heart.

Donaghy was a virus.

"Indeed, so significant was the buzz within betting circles surrounding Tim Donaghy's games that the FBI soon caught wind of the situation during a routine investigation into an organized crime family in New York," Griffin writes. "Agents working for the FBI's 'Gambino Squad' stumbled upon the Battista-Donaghy betting scandal on a wiretap, and it wouldn't be too long before agents paid The Sheep a visit."

The idea that the arrogant Donaghy wasn't trying to manipulate his own games is naïve in the extreme. Big players who picked up on the Donaghy-Battista betting moves made big scores.

As the season progressed, "there was little dispute among the world's big-time betting community that by early 2007, word within that crowd was that Tim Donaghy was fixing games and only a fool would have ignored Battista's ridiculously obvious wagering success."

Although the NBA keeps a gambling analyst on retainer in Las Vegas to seek out betting anomalies, it's clear from the Donaghy scandal that the league overall hadn't been doing its due diligence. Whether it remains more interested in its image than in ensuring such an officiating fiasco doesn't repeat itself remains to be seen.

After reading "Gaming the Game," you'll never watch an NBA contest the same way again.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.