Only hours before tip-off of game 3 of the NBA finals, a letter sent by Tim Donaghy’s lawyer attempting to gain leniency as the penal phase of his trial begins, was made public. To no one’s surprise, it made references to playoff series in 2002 and 2005 that were allegedly tainted by rigged officiating and fixing the game length of series. I think we all rember the Yao Ming incident and the $100,000 fine to Jeff Van Gundy. But was no one expected to see was the the NBA had asked for $1,000,000 dollars from Donaghy in an apparent attempt to extract some sort of conciliatory proof that he was alone in his game fixing efforts, and to “cover their costs” of the investgation. Seriously? The NBA needs $1 million that Donaghy doesn’t have to cover costs? In the wake of the current Game 2 free throw discrenacy, all this has done is this open the door to the crediblity of Donaghy’s claims, and suggests that the NBA was more involved than David Stern will have you believe. I wonder which Congressman or former legislator is going to head up the Comittee on Investigating the NBA cover up. I for one would like to see Bill Bradley skewering David Stern under oath and catching him in his lies.
