Today, ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy was released from his 15 month sentence for a gambling scandal. This is an absolute disgrace for me to hear about this man again. He ruins all credibility for good referees around the basketball world, regardless in level of play. As an occupation, officials take pride in their work; at least the honest ones do. We put forth our finest effort into governing the game appropriately, fairly, and with dignity. Ha, dignity, I wonder if Donaghy has ever heard that term before. He tarnishes it. He tarnished ethics, both personal and business; he ran over his neighbor’s dog with his lawnmower because the dog was barking and it annoyed the ex-referee. You can’t make this stuff up, the man is sick; and as a side profession for myself, I am disgusted to at one time, been in the same practice as he was.

The sad thing is, a certain high school games that I have done in the past, fans would start calling me or my partner ‘Tim Donaghy’ because they thought we were cheating. Thanks Tim, your selfish acts not only tarnish the game itself, but people who have honor in what they do as a professional.

Maybe he should go back to Kindergarten, but then he would rig “duck, duck, goose” to get one extra Hershey kiss.

-The Ref