Words matter. These are the best Tim Donaghy Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I think there’s a lot of successful referees to come out of the Philadelphia area because the basketball is so good.
I lived with my parents until I was 27.
I was in a unique position to predict the outcome of NBA games. Some of my picks included games I had been assigned to referee.
When you talk about gambling and the euphoria that comes with it, making winning picks is what excites 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.
I feel like we all make mistakes in life. Maybe mine was a little more public than others.
I wish I could turn back time. Unfortunately, I can’t.
I’m Catholic, I’m conditioned to confess.
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.
Absolutely, when you talk about the embarrassment that I caused in 2007 for myself, my family, the NBA, it was embarrassing then, and it’s as embarrassing now seeing it play out in a movie 10 years later. It’s tough to watch it. Every time I watch it, I cringe through the whole thing.
A Brooklyn-Miami matchup would bring great ratings and that’s what this is all about for the NBA and the league offices – bringing in as many dollars as they can.
We all have choices to make in life. And when we decide to go down that wrong road we’d be better off backing up and realizing that not only do you affect your life with some terrible choices, but the lives of people you love the most, and that’s your family.
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.
I just loved the game of basketball growing up and my goal was to somehow be a part of it.
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.
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.
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 wanted to be a part of the NBA because I enjoyed the Sixers games when I was young.
I don’t really need to bury the NBA. I just want the truth to be known about what I did and how I did it.
Some officials are afraid to blow the whistle with 20,000 people screaming and yelling at them. Some officials love to have the crowd go against them.
I started stuffing wads of cash into my socks and underwear and quietly passed by the T.S.A. agents with a grin on my face and a sigh of relief.
The FBI and the NBA did a thorough investigation, and they both concluded that I did not fix games in the NBA.
I was a target. There was a guy who took a paint roller extension pole and blasted me in the knee a few times. I had to have surgery to relieve the pain when I got out of prison.
There’s no doubt that there is star treatment. It’s discussed in the meetings. Obviously, people don’t pay an enormous amount of money to sit in those courtside seats to see players like Kobe, LeBron, Shaq – all the greats – sit on the bench and be in foul trouble.
I had a great job, living a great lifestyle… and just started doing the wrong things, getting a little bit cocky.
I still see referees officiating based on names on the front and back of jerseys and not based on how the rules are written in the rule book.
It’s mostly the coaches the refs don’t like. Like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. Jackson is a master at setting up refs, always telling them they’re against his team, playing mind games.
Not only did I not like officiating his games, I was afraid at times he was going to knock my block off… there was nothing you could do to get the guy on your side… with saying that, I’ve talked to Rasheed Wallace in the last couple of years and he’s nothing but a complete gentleman off the floor.
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 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 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.
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.
I’m not saying the games are fixed, because they are not. But they definitely program and train these referees to go out on the floor, and look for certain things, to put teams at advantages or disadvantages, based on who’s up or down in the series.
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.