Obviously I bet on games I officiated. I passed on information based on the meetings that the referees were having, and based on what the league office wanted us to call in playoff games. With that being said, I was able to win at a high percentage when we were betting on NBA games.
I feel like we all make mistakes in life. Maybe mine was a little more public than others.
I knew it was wrong, but I thought gambling was a venial sin. That's why I didn't confess it to a priest until after I was caught.
I'm Catholic, I'm conditioned to confess.
If you're going to advance as a referee and make that $75,000 to $100,000 a year in the playoffs, you're going to give the league what they want. Because they are grading you.
At some point, you're going to see the ability for a fan sitting in a seat to bet, swiping his credit card, whether James Harden is going to score ten 3-pointers or not that night.
The craft of officiating is taught that people come and pay top dollar to see people like Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, all the stars, and you have to make sure when you blow the whistle against those individuals that it's a foul that you basically can't let go.
Any time that you have a sporting event with a Vegas line to it, there's always going to be somebody involved in organized crime trying to make a dollar off of it.
I had the opportunity to run up and down the court with the greatest athletes in the world.
Did I go out and make calls in those games that the NBA wanted me and the crew to call? Absolutely. Did it put a team at an advantage and a disadvantage? Absolutely and that's how I was able to win the bets so easily.
If you're fixing a game, you're making calls up against star players to get that star player to the bench so that team is at a major disadvantage.
I think there's a lot of successful referees to come out of the Philadelphia area because the basketball is so good.
I wanted to be a part of the NBA because I enjoyed the Sixers games when I was young.
The big question on everyone's mind is, 'Did Tim Donaghy fix games?' The answer is no. I didn't need to fix them. I usually knew which team was going to win based on which referees had been assigned to the game, their personalities, and the relationships they had with the players and coaches of the teams involved.
I had a great job, living a great lifestyle... and just started doing the wrong things, getting a little bit cocky.
On the golf course, playing cards, running to the casinos, betting on college and pro football, it keeps spilling over to the next step, the next step, the next step. I basically started giving people information that I was receiving in the locker room, injury reports.
I truly believe that at some point they're going to have kiosks in every NBA arena, like they do at the airport when you get your boarding pass, so you can bet on the games.
The FBI and the NBA did a thorough investigation, and they both concluded that I did not fix games in the NBA.
When you see an article it always has 'disgraced NBA referee.' It's embarrassing and it's never going to be okay. Unfortunately, I have to move forward and just make things different moving forward.
I had a great job and I lost it, but I'm doing great now, I have a great family, my daughters all live with me. Did I have a setback? Absolutely, but I don't look at it like a ruined my life.
