In 2008 Tim Donaghy indicated that Scott Foster was a ref that also fixed games
"Records show Donaghy placed 134 calls to referee Scott Foster — more than the 126 calls Donaghy made to his bookie — between October 2006 and April 2007, the period during which he's confessed to either betting on games or passing on game information to gamblers."
"The majority of the phone calls lasted no more than two minutes and occurred prior to and after games Donaghy officiated and on which he admits wagering."
Further reading:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,381842,00.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3684129
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/chris_mannix/11/04/foster/
http://www.aolnews.com/2008/07/16/the-gambling-evidence-does-not-look-great-for-scott-foster-or-th/
http://www.truthaboutit.net/2010/03/nba-referee-scott-foster-still-in-the-game.html
FYI, following the betting lines on tonights game:
Vegas line:
Monday 10:00am OKC(+1.5)
Monday 11:30am OKC(+1.0)
Monday 2:30pm OKC(even)
Monday 5:30pm OKC(-1.0)
With the line jumping moving by 2.5 points in the 6 hours before the game, Vegas must have had a large amount of money being bet on OKC, justifying that line move.
At the same time, a large number of major online betting sites saw their lines jump the same 2.5 points right before the game.
SBGGLOBAL.com:
Monday 4:30pm OKC(+1.5)
Monday 5:24pm OKC(-1)
JustBet:
Monday 4:30pm OKC(+1)
Monday 5:14pm OKC(-1)
BetOnline:
Monday 2:00pm OKC(+1.5)
Monday 5:30pm OKC(-1.0)
BookMaker:
Monday 1:00pm OKC(+1.5)
Monday 5:45pm OKC(-1.0)
Good news for whoever bet that large amount of money before the game, as OKC managed to pull out the win...
* For the line moves: http://www.covers.com/sports/odds/linehistory.aspx?eventId=838230&sport=nba
4 months ago
BlazersMakr
51 comments
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it also was a late call, and a clean block
"But if Ding Dongs and prime rib were the path to NBA pivot stardom we'd all be wearing the uniform." -Dave
No. He didn't have the best view of that one.
"Luke is our go-to Chalupa man," Matthews said. "Designated."
his view was actually a good one. not as good as baseline official, but it was unobstructed.
problem was, like the goaltend call, he came in with the whistle VERY late, and “overruled” an official who was closer and had a better view of the play.
"But if Ding Dongs and prime rib were the path to NBA pivot stardom we'd all be wearing the uniform." -Dave
Must be a different play than the goal tending call
Time on the clock and score are all wrong. Not sure if @BRoyinThe4th was complaining about a different call or just put up the wrong screen grab.
No, I was talking about another call Foster made. This is a call he made late that was also a bad one. Camby got called for a foul
after he blocked Westbrook. Aldridge got the rebound and then Foster called a foul. That is what you see in the screencap.
by BRoyInThe4th on Feb 8, 2012 1:02 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Nice dig my man GOOD find
I wanted to believe that this game was thrown today in favor of OKC and now you have provided some validity to my beliefs! He even LOOKS LIKE the reincarnation of the devil also known as Donaghy.
Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Vladimir Stepania, Ha(ha you suck) Seung Jin, Travis Diener and Erick Barkley
Some bs fo sho
OSU '06
GForce Crash Wallace FTW!
by TyboOSU on Feb 7, 2012 12:39 AM PST via mobile reply actions
Someone once asked me why I hated refs so much
The data in this post is as good an answer as any
"What began as a credible protest against bank bailouts, crony capitalism and the like has, in large measure, been hijacked by crazies and criminals,"
by 92wastheyear on Feb 7, 2012 8:46 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
He is my take on it from an old fan post from the Donhegy scandal
PS here is another from a non-blazer related ref snafu
"What began as a credible protest against bank bailouts, crony capitalism and the like has, in large measure, been hijacked by crazies and criminals,"
The Goal Tend Call
Foster had the worst angle to make that call. Obstructed by the rim, behind the play, at half court. Are you serious? From behind the play?! No way he could have seen that. Dude cheated.
by DannyYoung on Feb 7, 2012 9:20 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
We know that Donaghy’s supposed game-fixing strategy was to affect over unders by whistling additional fouls, not favoring specific teams. We also know there was considerable uncertainty surrounding Raymond Felton’s ankle, and the fact that he would miss out last night became clear around the middle of the day yesterday, which could easily move the line. Books aren’t perfectly efficient in assimilating that information, so the moves aren’t uniform, but that could certainly explain the line moves.
i keep dancing on my own.
by atomiccafe on Feb 7, 2012 9:42 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Felton
clearly was the cause for the line-move. I don’t think there’s anything to see here.
And honestly, 95% of all my calls are under 2 minutes.
M, period. Fresh, comma.
Felton doesn't move that line 2.5 pts
and if it was Felton, it wouldn’t happen incrementally like that
"If I had a dime for every basket I made today, you'd still suck!" - from the book 'John Dies @ the End'
Its probably not a good idea for a guy with a Donaghy connection to be working games. I still would need to see more evidence to be convinced the line move didn’t have to do with the Felton situation, but this is the rare case where I don’t begrudge fans for being upset and wanting more information.
How does this guy still have a job as a ref in the NBA?
If he is connected to Donaghy in any way, he shoulda been gone along time ago. LAME!
by cavejunctionblazer on Feb 7, 2012 11:56 AM PST reply actions 10 recs
It's funny, I filled my wife in on the game, and the events surrounding Foster this morning
She said something similar to, “wait, he’s still reffing?! Even if he’s innocent, it just gives the appearance of impropriety anyway! Even if you need to pay him a tidy severance, you have to clean house in that situation”.
Even discounting the events of yesterday, I still have to agree with her. I was surprised to realize this was the same ref named in the Donaghy case.
I’m also not really convinced this was premeditated (or opportunistic) in any way, but I’ve got to give this fanshot credit for a very entertaining conspiracy theory.
It's their choice between a one-time story or one that reappears whenever he botches a call
One is about short time pain, the other involves long-term credibility concerns whenever a botched call comes up.
by Timmay! on Feb 7, 2012 4:49 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs
Exactly.
The NBA HAD to know that something like this was going to happen. It was inevitable.
There is just no excuse for keeping him around, other than the league simply not wanting to know what they may find out if they investigated it.
Either way, it looks REALLY BAD for the NBA.
Meh.
In general, he’s a decent ref and they’re hard to come by. He botched this call, for sure. Mistakes happen, and the bigger problem is that there wasn’t a system in place to take care of human error in situations like this. Mostly, I’m not buying the argument that he’s crooked, and I’m just not big on punishing people who aren’t guilty.
The appearance of impropriety is so important when it comes to any judging situation
Not to mention in a league where “superstar call” is just considered a fact of life by most fans.
No argument on a better system of course. On the other hand, if the NBA is that low on good referees, that’s a problem they should have been working on for years, so it doesn’t bite them when they have a ref credibility issue (legitimate or not, it really doesn’t matter once the appearance exists).
Liability could be an issue, though
If the NBA were to dismiss him based on the appearance of impropriety, they’d probably open themselves up to a pretty hefty wrongful termination suit from Foster, and unless they could prove some sort of impropriety (which neither Pedowitz nor the FBI could), my guess is they’d have a good chance of losing that case. It’s in no way illegal to be friends with a guy who turns out to be a scumbag, which seems to have been the extent of the proven allegations.
If the NBA were to dismiss him based on the appearance of impropriety, they’d probably open themselves up to a pretty hefty wrongful termination suit from Foster
That’s a tough call, just the number of short phone calls to Donaghy, combined with being implicated, would probably qualify as “cause” if it went to court.
That being said, like I noted earlier, he’d be getting a severance package, which would require his resignation as part of it, most likely. So those concerns go out the window.
Also probably worth noting that they could have reassigned him.
Had him basically retire from active duty.
Obviously they could have offered him a nice package to resign
and maybe they should have in order to defuse the situation, but I’m not sure that the phone calls would have been enough to qualify as just cause for termination if Foster definitely wanted to continue to ref. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems a little thin given that he was cleared by multiple investigations into the allegations.
Of course, it depends on what exactly were the results of the investigations. The reporting results are pretty vague but seem to clear Foster pretty definitively. If they actually were suspicious of Foster after investigating, sure, I think there was cause, but I think that has to go beyond the limited information that we as fans have here. You can’t really indict Foster of anything more than being friends with a degenerate gambler given the publicly available information, and I’d be pretty surprised if that were deemed sufficient cause in court.
But as I said, I’m not a lawyer, so maybe it is sufficient.
The problem probably has less to do with the actual standard for termination (which I don’t know since I haven’t read and have no interest in reading the referees’ union’s contract with the NBA), but more the fact that the above-mentioned union would be obligated to mount a vigorous defense of Foster which would create an incredibly damaging dispute between the league and the union.
i keep dancing on my own.
A matter of choice
As for the 1 time story thing, the 5th “further reading” is from 2010 from the wizards espn truehoop blog…. good read actually….
http://www.truthaboutit.net/2010/03/nba-referee-scott-foster-still-in-the-game.html
That’s exactly the point. Does the NBA really want the web to create a timeline of these stories by different teams, all indicating that the league has no credibility?
Judging by Stern’s handling of the Paul trade, the answer might surprise us… :-)
So in the four proceeding years after the Donaghy accusations
We have two whole examples of fanbases feeling aggrieved by Scott Foster calls? Out of how many games he’s reffed in that time period?
Good thing Donaghy wasn’t friends with Violet Palmer, this would have gotten ugly a whole lot faster.
Entertainment
I’m glad you found this post to be an entertaining conspiracy theory. That is the point of all of our posts after all…
Am I convinced, or even inclined to believe that this conspiracy was actually the case? After having 24 hours to let my emotions run their course, probably not… but… :-)
However, I was quite frustrated last night after the game, and required an outlet…
Now, if only I could get ahold of Foster’ text messages…. :-)
Dude fixed this one.
Whether he meant to, or not. And it SURE LOOKS like he meant to.
I mean, not even going to the tape? Freaking A.
LaMarcus "Macrohard" Aldridge
Raymond Felton
His participation from “doubtful” to “out” Monday afternoon is likely where the gambling line shift came from.
This is possible.
Although, I’d like to see some stats on game lines and how they typically move in these situations. Or, even if Vegas gives an explination (which they often do) for why it moved like it did. Sure, it could be the Felton “news”, or it could be large bets on the Thunder.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think anybody REALLY thought Ray was going to play last night.
Jay Kornegay should be interviewed on one of the shows on 750am the game....
I would love one of the guys on 750am to talk to the Hilton’s Jay Kornegay about what caused the line to shift before the game…
Felton
I don’t think that Vegas moved their lines due to Felton. When line’s move because of injuries, they tend to do it in 1 move, as opposed to 0.5/1.0 point movements over the afternoon. However, it could easily be the case…
The Blazers have had 3 games this year where the line has moved more than 1.0 points from open→close.
22 of the 25 games have had either no movement, 0.5 or 1.0 point movement from open→close.
Jazz — 3.0 points
OKC – 2.5 points
Mem – 1.5 points
The Jazz game is a good example of injuries, as the Vegas line moved 3.0 points, all at once, slightly after noon, when the Jazz released that both Bell/Jefferson were both out for the game.
Repost of a comment I made earlier
But what the heck: If you’re interested in this reffing crap, read the Pedowitz Report: http://www.nba.com/media/PedowitzReport.pdf
Fascinating stuff.
Almost certainly, Foster was a dirty ref--like his buddy Donaghy
But I doubt that call last night was gambling-related. If you want to influence a game, there’s many, many less obvious ways to do it.
Still, that call demonstrated that Foster not only lacks integrity; he’s also a poor ref. You don’t call goaltending on that play unless you’re dead certain.
I still believe in Greg Oden. The Blazers' medical staff? Not so much.
I'd change my handle to "bringback'09," but I'm too lazy.
by hurryup09 on Feb 7, 2012 5:36 PM PST reply actions 2 recs
Talk about lack of integrity...
Stern’s got to be the poster boy for that. He’s never owned up to anything Donaghy said and just swept it all under the rug. Of course, so did the media for the most part. There’s no shortage of people with a lack of integrity involved with the NBA.
It all
just makes me sick. I’ve never been madder at a game, it stunk and everyone knew it. I almost walked out at that point.
I'm such a loyal Blazers fan that even half my fantasy basketball team is injured.
more than 1
there were several bad calls down the stretch 3 in 1 possession including the 2 out of bounds calls 1 being reviewed and still going to okc the fast break by batum where westbrook ripped his arm off no foul called its bs but no matter what any fan coach or player says they wont give us that win
And the review happened when OKC
had no timeouts left effectively giving them a TO to set a play while they determined they made the right call (wink,wink)
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