10-28-2009 DISGRACED REFEREE UNLOADS ON NBA Tim Donaghy, the disgraced referee who was found guilty of betting on NBA games, has written a book that will blow the lid on all the odd things that go on between referees and players during a game. Donaghy, who will be released from prison in a week, has written a book titled "Blowing The Whistle." It was initially going to be published by a division of Random House, but a threatened lawsuit by the NBA has temporarily killed it. He may now publish it on his own. Some excerpts as noted on the Web site Deadspin: The referees would bet on who would call the first technical of the game and that person would not have to tip the ball boy. Sometimes the referee who called the first foul in a game had to pay for dinner. Sometimes two or three minutes would go by before an obvious foul was called. Some stalwart defensive players like Raja Bell were "too talented" and would hold superstars like Kobe Bryant from scoring, so fake calls would be called on Bell. If a superstar like Bryant got some early fouls the referees would not call fouls to keep him in the game. Some referees hated superstar players and would call fouls on them; other referees were just the opposite. One referee would deliberately make sure games were as close as possible. Some championship series were deliberately called so that there would be a seventh game to make the league and TV networks happy.
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