TIM DONAGHY ON 60 MINUTES SUNDAY AT 7PM

Delaware County native and former NBA referee Tim Donaghy will be interviewed on 60 Minutes Sunday at 7 p.m. Donaghy specifically mentions former/current Sixers star Allen Iverson in the interview.

Here are the details from CBS:



Winning bets on pro basketball games using insider knowledge only he as an NBA referee would know was “euphoria” says now-disgraced ex-ref Tim Donaghy – that is, he says, until the mob got its hooks in him and threatened his family. Donaghy talks to Bob Simon about how he says he based his bets on other refs’ biases, his mafia involvement and the subsequent jail time he received in his first interview to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Dec. 6 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Donaghy was breaking a cardinal rule in professional sports by betting on the sport he worked in, even on many of the games he officiated, and he was winning 75 percent of the time. When the Mafia learned of his success, they wanted him to work for them, he says. “They basically told me that I needed to give them the picks and if I didn’t, that it’s a possibility that somebody would go down and visit my wife and kids in Florida,” says Donaghy.

Thus began a relationship that former FBI Special Agent Phil Scala says produced “a few million dollars, conservatively, that went into the coffers of organized crime.”


The mafia was making millions but for each correct pick, Donaghy says he was getting just $2,000. But he was frightened at this point and it was no longer about the money, he says. “It was just about getting through the season and hoping that would end [the dealings he says he had with the Mafia].” He was eventually arrested by the FBI, which learned about him from one of their Mafia wiretaps. He spent 11 months in prison and provided evidence against his mob cohorts.


The whole experience was rough on his family; he tells Simon it “ruined it.” “We all have choices to make in life and when we decide to go down that wrong road we would be better off backing up…not only do you affect your life…but the lives of the people you love the most,” says Donaghy, who has a wife and four daughters. “It was a horrible choice.”

Donaghy says he bet on the outcomes of NBA games based on what he said he knew were referees’ attitudes that could affect their calls. “I knew there were certain relationships that existed between referees and players, referees and coaches and referees and owners that influence the point spreads in games,” he tells Simon. Many bets were based on whether a ref liked or disliked a certain player. Philadelphia 76ers star player Allen Iverson was a lightening rod – some refs hated him and others liked him. “I do believe Allen Iverson knew this…all the players know this…certain referees treat them better than others.” In a classic example, he says, Iverson threatened an official and was fined instead of suspended; then refs were out to get even and were biased against him.

Donaghy, in a game he worked, bet against Iverson’s team and won. He denies using his power as referee to deliberately throw a game to win a bet. Scala says the FBI investigated the whole scheme and found no evidence that Donaghy deliberately threw games with his calls

No one from the NBA would participate in this story, but its commissioner, David Stern, and other referees say Donaghy is untrustworthy as a convicted felon and maintain that refs are professionals who don’t let their personal attitudes conflict with their jobs.