Bet on it: NBA easiest sport to taint

It's best the FBI came down on Tim Donaghy now, given the NBA referee has participated in the league's Read to Achieve program with children and little ones should be at least 10 before perusing their first Gold Sheet.

What might surprise you but shouldn't: A professional sports official is being investigated for allegedly betting on games he worked and making calls that affected point spreads. That it might have happened in basketball is more than believable.

If one thing about the NBA is guaranteed -- other than Kobe Bryant enjoying the sound of his own voice -- it's that crooked calls are far easier to produce than in other sports.

In baseball, you would need a corrupt plate umpire to ensure games are affected, which means you could cash in only every fourth day. In football, you would need a referee capable of disguising phantom holding calls and a few roughing-the-passer flags on precise snaps. In basketball, with a three-man crew calling countless infractions over 48 minutes, you could ice one team's star on the bench for long periods or make critical calls and not be questioned when graded.

If that happened and it's proven Donaghy over the last two seasons began to cover gambling losses to organized crime associates by fixing games with his whistle, it's the worst thing imaginable for the NBA. It makes the league's drug problems in the 1970s seem like a pharmaceutical mix-up. It makes the Pacers-Pistons brawl in 2004 seem like a thumb-wrestling contest. It makes those off-court image issues seem less serious than mixing stripes and plaids.

Nothing is more damning for a league than to have its integrity questioned, to realize a time when fans no longer can trust what they're watching.

Without integrity, the NBA becomes the WWE.

"To a certain level I was surprised, because you're talking about a pretty high level here with the NBA," said Jay Kornegay, executive director of the Las Vegas Hilton sports book. "But then again, in today's society, people get themselves into situations and try to take advantage of certain loopholes.

"It's all allegations and speculation right now, but I'm sure we'll follow the investigation."

It won't ultimately point anywhere near Nevada and its regulated wagering, but that won't stop many from using the probe to strengthen the idiotic claim Las Vegas shouldn't be awarded an NBA team based on gambling. Smart people know better. They have taken more than a second to educate themselves, to realize the last thing Nevada bookmakers want is anyone fixing games.

No, this has small-time, old-school, back-in-the-day, calling in bets for a few thousand dollars here and there to Johnny Meatballs at the pizza parlor on East 15th Street in Brooklyn written all over it. This is probably a guy getting in bad with the wrong people and digging himself a cavernous hole in which to bury his career and possibly apply an irrevocable stain to the walls outside NBA commissioner David Stern's Fifth Avenue office.

"I assume some would try and make the connection between this investigation and Las Vegas, but I'll also match our record of (regulating gambling) against anyone in America," Kornegay said. "Even if there was a team here, it wouldn't have prevented what allegedly happened with (Donaghy) on the East Coast.

"People have no idea how well regulated and policed we are in sports gambling."

Stern should be happy to know all officials, coaches and players attending the USA Basketball minicamp at Cox Pavilion received the memo about avoiding questions concerning Donaghy like Michael Vick might an annual PETA convention. It was one veiled comment after another Friday, although all present are convinced the commissioner has his finger squarely on the explosive topic.

Of course they are.

How ironic. Stern's primary concern about a Las Vegas franchise always has been fans fretting over point spreads instead of cheering their favorite players, about leaving an arena unhappy when the home team wins but doesn't cover.

Today, his league needs to worry about better policing its own house before it ever questions the veracity of another. It also needs to pray the alleged corruption stops with one official. Over time, you can survive one soiled apple. But if you get two or three or more officials involved in fixing games, your league never would recover.

Today, Tim Donaghy needs to know that should the investigation prove his guilt, few fates are worse to own than no longer being useful to the mob. In that case, the best you can hope for is a new address in a secluded place.

The good news is, you can read the Gold Sheet to children anywhere.

Ed Graney's column is published Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.