Donaghy's Iverson Allegation New to NBA

On Sunday, CBS aired a 60 Minutes interview with Tim Donaghy, the disgraced former NBA referee/convicted felon who has admitted to gambling on games he officiated. In the interview, Donaghy discussed passages of his new book, including a fair bit on his allegation that referees (himself included) conspired in early 2007 to partake in some vigilante justice on Allen Iverson, who had just threatened ref Steve Javie in the course of a game. Donaghy says officials didn't think the NBA's fine was enough punishment for A.I., so refs decided to punish him with the whistle.

After the 60 Minutes segment aired, the NBA released a statement in which Commissioner David Stern, as he did when excerpts of Donaghy's book first leaked in October, categorically denied Donaghy's allegations of referee bias, and reminded us that the FBI, in its investigation of Donaghy, did not find any criminal actions on the part of any other league referee. I took that to mean that the NBA had previously known about and dismissed the Iverson allegation. The problem with that, though, was that unlike other allegations raised in the course of the Donaghy investigation, the Iverson incident was not discussed at all in Lawrence Pedowitz's independent report on the case.

As it turns out, there's a more simple explanation as to why the Iverson incident wasn't discussed in the Pedowitz report: because this is the first anyone has heard of the allegation. A league source tells me the NBA nor Pedowitz had ever heard the Iverson allegation before the simultaneous book release and 60 Minutes segment last week. Donaghy did not talk to Pedowitz's team in the process of fact finding for the report, and the FBI apparently did not hear about Iverson from Donaghy, or if they did failed to share that allegation with the league -- understandable, since Donaghy alleges no crime by the two referees he shared duties for the game in question.

The league source said there will likely be a supplement to the Pedowitz report investigating and addressing the latest Donaghy allegations. There does not appear to be a timetable for its release in place.

But in the mean time, Henry Abbott and Kevin Arnovitz have done yeoman work fact-checking Donaghy's newest claims. And suffice it to say that it appears you cannot trust the word of this particular felon. Abbott and Ken Berger of CBS Sportsline looked into the Iverson claim separately ... and neither found any evidence Donaghy and his fellow refs penalized Iverson in the January 2007 game in question. Abbott also found that despite Donaghy's published claim to the contrary, Iverson did not "suffer" in games worked by Javie.

Arnovitz looked into another claim Donaghy said made him money: that veteran ref Dick Bavetta favored big underdogs as a way of creating competitive games. Donaghy said if Bavetta was assigned to a game with a large point spread, he'd pick the underdog knowing that Bavetta would make calls to get a close game (and thus put the favorite in danger of missing the spread). Arnovitz commissioned an economist to find out whether betting on the big underdog in Bavetta-refereed games during Donaghy's betting spree would have resulted in big winnings. The economist found that instead you'd lose money by taking Donaghy's advice.