The stain that remains: the movie about the basketball referee who stinks is thought-provoking

Under the noses of an entire league, Tim Donaghy, a corrupt basketball referee, bet on games he officiated.

"The Untold Story: An Unsportsmanlike Offense" that appeared on Netflix raises a lot of disturbing questions about the affair that upset the NBA 15 years ago.

The main one: did he act alone?

David Rosenthal

16/09/2022

Friday, September 16, 2022, 11:24 am

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The trailer of the movie "Unsportsmanlike Offense" on Netflix (NETFLIX)

Sports fans operate from a particularly emotional place.

They will almost always see things more radically than they really are.

When a referee doesn't manage the game well, they will claim that he is against them, and not only him, but all the referees, wherever they are, did one hand for their team to lose.

Even in the groups themselves, complaints about consistent and constant deprivation are often heard.

The average fan and team member more than once suspects that the referees come with decisions from the house.

Along with this suspicion, everyone wants to believe that this is not the case, otherwise what is the point of the game they love so much?

In 2007, an atomic bomb fell on the world of American sports.

Tim Donaghy, one of the top referees in the NBA, admitted that he bet on games.

He admitted that he gambled, not that he sold, and this nuance has a huge meaning.

Donaghy spent 15 months behind bars, and that affair is all but forgotten.

In the decade and a half since he was convicted, the NBA has continued to make billions and become one of the most successful sports brands in the world.

Tim Donaghy with Mike Beebe from Sacramento.

Was the recorded debate legitimate on the part of the judge? (Photo: GettyImages, Ronald Martinez)

"The Untold Story: Operation Flagrant Foul" (original name: (Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul) is the new episode of the wonderful Netflix docu-series, which unfolds the behind-the-scenes stories of major sports scandals. For the first time, that affair, the exposure it received over the years was minor compared to the potential Its explosiveness, its real meaning and possible consequences, gets a clear framework and answers several important questions: What and who led Donaghy to commit the greatest crime in the eyes of sports fans - influencing a game as the man with the whistle?

Through three points of view - of Donaghy, his friend Tommy Martino And the gambler James "Baba" Battista - we get a fairly clear plot line in principle, but you won't find firm answers here. The film provides several versions, with each of the narrators providing their own narrative and for the viewer to choose who to believe. In my eyes, at least, Donaghy himself is the lesser character Amina among the three,Which perhaps further strengthens the affair and its absorption and indicates that there is still more hidden than visible.

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There are those who whistle against them and there are those who don't.

Donaghy with Kobe Bryant (Photo: GettyImages, Lisa Blumenfeld)

Despite, and perhaps precisely because of the body language that conveys insincerity, Donaghy says a number of very interesting and thought-provoking things.

Thus, for example, he explains how the NBA goes with the big stars and conveys this message to the referees as well.

He provides an excellent example by whistling steps to Michael Jordan on a "spin move", a move in which the star turned and shook off the guard on his way to the basket.

Are these indeed steps?

According to the book, definitely, but he later received quite a few messages according to which "they want you to blow that whistle, just not on players like Jordan".

Donaghy suggests that this nuance, whereby umpires are pretty much obligated to do what and where to serve the goals of the league, laid the groundwork for him to bet on games.

"Bet" is a key word, because according to him he did not tip but only gambled.

After all, "all" he did, according to him, was to tell Batista who he thought would win the match he was refereeing.

In about 80 percent of the cases he was right, and here a problematic point arises on an almost philosophical level:

Michael French, who was nicknamed the "Prince of the Mafia" due to his good looks and high level of intelligence, was in the 1970s a member of the Colombo crime family and one of the main people responsible for recruiting college basketball players to rig games.

"We didn't do anything stupid like influence the identity of the winner, we did make the players miss on purpose so that we would defeat the betting line," he once said.

That's exactly the thing with Donaghy too: he didn't affect the outcome of the game.

Most of his whistles were good, and the ones that were less accurate could be excused as just poor judgment.

It's scary to think that among dozens of whistles during a game, some can be intentionally wrong and still not affect the game at all in a way that would be revealed to the naked eye.

It's also scary to think how easy it is to mask it.

After all, even in the age of VAR, who can imagine that a referee who rules on a corner that clearly looks like an offside has actually committed to some betting syndicate a cap on corner kicks?

Donaghy says that a significant part of his successful bets rested on referees who had an account with one coach or another and shut him down on the field.

I want to say - I may have gambled but I didn't gamble, unlike other judges who gambled without gambling at all.

Equally frightening is the thought that Donaghy did not act alone.

It is written in the contract of an NBA referee that he is not allowed to gamble in any way, not even in games that have nothing to do with the industry to which he belongs, but most of the NBA referees who were asked admitted that they bet in one way or another (not on basketball games, gambling in general).

According to some of the speakers in the film, it was important for the league that makes billions of dollars a year to sacrifice Donaghy on the altar funds.

The thought that there were indeed other judges like Donaghy who gambled is mind-blowing, but there are things that may simply be better not known.

David Stern managed to bury the affair, Donaghy went to jail and other judges were not even investigated.

He himself says that "everyone did it" and now you choose who to believe.

He knew how to shrink the affair as much as possible.

David Stern (Photo: GettyImages)

"Unsportsmanlike conduct" is a film that clearly shows the corruption industry that penetrated deep into the NBA through Donaghy's whistleblowing, along with excellent human moments (like, for example, his wife's reaction when she found out that her suspicions about him matched him).

This is an important document that teaches how bad things are forged in chambers.

Is this film something, for better or for worse, in the average viewer's perception of what happens on the floor or in the field?

Absolutely not, fans will continue to think that their team is being beaten on purpose.

The question that does arise is whether there is another Tim Donaghy walking around in the top sports in the USA, one of those who knocks everyone.

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