As someone then deep into the research and writing about the
2003-07 NBA betting scandal, I purchased former NBA referee Tim Donaghy’s book
when it was published in 2009.
I also
listened to many of his related interviews at the time.
Almost immediately, I realized it was simply
the latest Donaghy con job, and couldn’t believe practically no one in the
media caught onto the hustle.
Instead,
the vast majority of the media actually facilitated Donaghy’s scam!
As a white-collar crime researcher with an interest in
literary frauds, I have often referred to Donaghy’s book as the sports version
of James Frey’s now-infamous
A Million Little Pieces (made popular by
Oprah Winfrey, first exposed by
The Smoking Gun).
Because many
sports media hosts have uncritically accepted Donaghy’s myriad
demonstrable
falsehoods, enabling and assisting his con, I have on occasion attempted to
correct the record.
After all, this is
one of the most significant scandals in the history of U.S. sports.
I began documenting Donaghy’s ongoing fraud
and related scams almost a decade ago and can imagine what someone like James
Randi experienced
debunking hustlers like Uri Geller and Peter Popoff years ago.
Among dozens of insulting and offensive Donaghy appearances
over the past decade, Missanelli’s “interview” was among the most
problematic.
Missanelli is a former
journalist for the
Philadelphia Inquirer and a law school graduate, and
listeners are told they can expect something more than the standard sports
radio talk show shock jock shtick.
Indeed, Missanelli recently admonished someone on Twitter in this
regard,
stating,
“Obviously, u haven’t heard my interviews, so one day you’ll learn,” while his
on-air colleague tweeted, “Mike doesn’t just ‘interview’, he cross-examines.”
What follows is an evidenced-based review of the vital
claims Donaghy (and to a far lesser extent, his fellow conspirator/convicted
fraudster Martino) made to Missanelli and his audience. As you’ll see, nothing has changed since 2009
when it comes to Missanelli’s command of/regard for the facts.
For starters, Missanelli had Donaghy and Martino in the
studio together, which should have afforded golden opportunities to expose the
many consequential issues and contradictions between them over what transpired
during the scandal.
Perhaps the easiest
string of questions which should have been asked concerns
the film’s official description,
which reads (
emphasis added):
In 2007, when NBA referee Tim Donaghy
(Eric Mabius) got caught betting on games he worked, he said two men
associated with the Gambino crime family - a bookie named Baba Battista (Will
Sasso) and a drug dealer named Tommy Martino (Scott Wolf) - threatened to kill
his family if he didn't give them gambling picks. That's what Donaghy
told the FBI, that's what he told 60 Minutes, and that's what he testified in
court. But that's not what really happened. That's not even close. INSIDE
GAME is the untold true story of one of the biggest scandals in sports history.
You are reading that correctly. The promo for the Martino film explicitly
states Donaghy lied about matters of vital importance for more than a decade. Was it too much to expect host Missanelli to
alert his audience to this, and to then inquire about this fundamental
curiosity – with Donaghy and Martino feet from him, no less? If I had to guess, Missanelli and his crew
were wholly unaware of these fundamentals (along with much else, as you’ll
discover).
Please find below the most consequential matters about
which Missanelli’s audience was (again) misinformed. Anyone really paying attention will notice
the questions are, themselves, predicated on Donaghy’s false narrative
(Missanelli appears unaware of this, too).
The Donaghy-Martino appearance began with this exchange:
(1:33) MM: “Alright, here’s the story, in case you don’t know
the story, but it’s pretty well known.
You [TD] provided inside info to gambling buddies off, primarily, a
referee’s master list that came out in the morning, knowing the tendencies of
certain refs. And the inside information you got on injuries and edicts from
the League on how to balance calls, and you used that information to provide at
first to a golfing buddy… Primarily you knew of referees’ tendencies to not
like certain players or coaches and hence the calls would go against those
particular guys, and that was one of your major assets in winning bets, right?”
(2:37): TD: “Oh, absolutely and we won at like an 80% clip.”
You will
note host Missanelli doesn’t say the above is Donaghy’s (self-serving) story;
it is presented to his audience as the story (i.e., as though its
fact-based history). And herein lies the
problem with the entire appearance.
Missanelli is clearly unaware all of Donaghy’s key assertions have been debunked. About this exchange, listeners should know
Donaghy has always claimed he didn’t fix games and that his bets were instead
based on “inside information”.
Furthermore, he argues he bet more on games he didn’t officiate
during the ’06-07 season. This would all
make sense, of course, if “inside information” accounted for his betting
interest and success, not his on-court behavior. As I and others have explained in detail, with the exception of a few bets in the 2006-07 season
(the last of the four NBA scandal seasons), all the wagers were on games
Donaghy officiated. The reason for
that is obvious – those were the games he could influence with his on-court
actions. The only reason professional gamblers learned of the scandal in the
2003-04 season was the outrageous winning percentage of certain bets exclusively
on games Donaghy was officiating. The
very few bets placed in ‘06-07 on non-Donaghy games were losers, and pro
gambler Battista thus stopped taking them.
Sources for that? Pro gamblers, including
those who proffered with the government, Battista, AND TOMMY MARTINO, who also
cut a deal with the feds after perjuring himself in front of the grand jury; betting line data and betting records illustrate this clearly, also).
The next area of Missanelli “inquiry”
concerned the following Donaghy staples, each of which was uttered without a
hint of evidence-based pushback from host Missanelli: (1) Donaghy decided to stop
betting on games he officiated with his golfing buddy Jack Concannon in 2006 but
then (2) “mob-connected” gambler Jimmy Battista (3) threatened him and his
family unless he began betting with Battista.
Not one of these three items is true, so let’s see how Missanelli
“probed” Donaghy and Martino (emphasis added):
(2:46) TD: “We [Jack Concannon and I] stopped at one point
and Battista tricked Tommy into going down to the airport Marriott where I was
staying one time.”
(3:30) MM: “Alright now, Tommy, you’re the kind of the
go-between of this whole thing. Battista
is the mob-connected guy. How does he know that you [Donaghy] have this
expertise in picking these games?”
(3:36) TD: “Battista knows because they were watching what
Concannon was betting with Pete Ruggieri, so they knew.”
(3:37) MM: “So there was a bookie…” (overtalking)
(3:38) TD: “There was a bookie named Pete Ruggieri that Jack
was going through, and they saw that we were winning an enormous amount of the
time so they started piggyback[ing] the bets and making a lot of money, so when
we would stop you know that’s when they wanted to continue to get the picks and
that’s when Battista went to Tommy.”
(4:02): MM “Alright, they strong arm you, Tommy, and there’s this meeting
and, Tim, you are allegedly threatened by this semi-mob-connected
guy that if you don’t cooperate he’s gonna hurt your family?”
(4:16): TD “That, and he’s gonna, uh, ya know, possibly
expose the fact that I’ve been gambling, and my contract stated that I couldn’t
place a bet at any time.”
(4:23): MM “So he’s gonna dime you out, basically? Alright,
so now the extortion part is involved.”
(4:27): TD “Right, so either way I just felt like I was going
to lose my job so I was gonna roll the dice and provide picks for him for the
next three months [i.e., the rest of the NBA season].”
(4:35): MM “Now, people will look at this and go, ‘Okay,
that’s a big justification. Ya know this
mob guy’s involved, and that’s only
giving you an excuse to do what you what you’re really likin’ to do, anyway.’
How do you answer that?”
(4:52) TD: “I didn’t want to do it with Battista but I was
gonna lose my job if he went to anybody in
the NBA and said I had been gambling for years, uh, so it was something
ya know when he tricked Tommy into setting up the meeting that I agreed to do
it.”
(12:05) MM: “Let me ask you, Tommy, did you know you were
taking this guy [Donaghy] down the well? What were you feeling this whole time?
He's making the bets, we got this other mob guy over here, you know that his life is going to be in
ruin. What did you think your responsibility was? You grew up as friends.”
(12:20) TM: “Yeah, so Battista came to me and wasn't specific
as to why - the reason why - we had to
have a meeting with Donaghy. He just
said to me, ‘Tommy, Timmy’s in trouble. We need to meet with Donaghy next time
he's in Philadelphia.’ So, me being worried about Timmy, I said, ‘What the hell
did he do now?’, ya know? So…I said ‘Tim,
when are you gonna be in Philly again?’ I didn't tell him about Battista. He
said, ‘They’re playing the Celtics this day,’ and I said, ‘Ayyight, I'm gonna
come down and see ya.’ On the way down
Battista told me that he…Battista caught wind of the fact Timmy was betting
through Jack Concannon and Pete Ruggieri.”
(13:00) MM: “So you had to tell him that?”
(13:02) TM: “That's what Battista told me.”
(13:04) MM: “And that was it. You’re on the hook.”
(13:05) TM: “That was it. And we went in there and it was
different. Batista held up a napkin with ‘2k’ on it. And said, ‘Timmy, give me the games not Jack’.”
And one last point re “the mob”
threatening Donaghy came a bit later (emphasis added):
(16:00) MM: You quote a mob capo in your book, Mike Franzese, who has since reformed
himself and become a born again Christian or whatever and his message to you
because you communicated with him was that you're
always going to be looking over your shoulder. Do you feel that?
(16:16) TD: For sure. I mean, I think I definitely feel that
way.
Whew!
Where to begin
debunking this utter nonsense?
Perhaps the
best way for someone like Missanelli to understand the core problem here is to
pose him this question: “Would you ask Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson if
he is ‘always looking over his shoulder’ in fear of ‘the mob’?”
Of course not.
Why, then, ask Donaghy?
The only reason – like all else with this
narrative – is because Missanelli bought Donaghy’s self-serving bs in the first
place.
Indeed, the predicate of the
entire appearance and “interview” starts with Donaghy’s misinformation.
Missanelli is apparently unaware these
matters were vetted by federal authorities (who LOVE hyping organized crime
cases, by the way, especially in New York, where this case originated), and
resolved in court (not to mention the considerable follow-up research by many
data-driven folks).
The feds never
discussed this as an organized crime case (in court docs/proceedings or in the
press), and they never viewed it as an extortion case.
This level of historical ignorance in the
media is a problem.
My goodness,
we have known all of this for a decade.
As a brief refresher: Judge Carol Bagley Amon (1) described
the conspiracy among Donaghy, Battista, and Martino as a business “arrangement”,
before she (2) added that Donaghy was “more culpable” than his co-conspirators
(not exactly what you’d hear if Donaghy was an extortion victim, which is why
Battista was never even charged with extortion). Furthermore, following his proffer sessions
and guilty plea negotiations, the government wrote that Donaghy “has never taken the position that he was anything other than
a willing participant in the scheme with Battista and Martino, and, before
them, with Jack Concannon.” Is
Missanelli aware of any of this?
Want more details about this specific absurdity? Okay, please consider this…especially given
current events.
Since Donaghy is out hyping Tommy’s MARTINO’s film WITH MARTINO,
perhaps it might be enlightening to see what MARTINO told the FBI about the
above. The following are from FBI 302
summaries of MARTINO interviews contained in his confidential FBI file (again,
recall he proffered with the government after he got caught perjuring himself
in front of the grand jury).
Actual context re that
December 2006 meeting at the PHL Marriott between Donaghy, MARTINO, and
Battista (“Baba”) occurred, according to MARTINO?
“Donaghy complained that
Concannon was not giving him any money so he wanted to start giving picks to
Baba.”
What about Battista allegedly threatening Donaghy, according to
MARTINO? (emphasis added)
“Martino never heard Baba threaten Donaghy in any
way. Martino had the impression that Donaghy
wanted to provide the picks to Baba for Donaghy’s own financial gain. Martino was not aware of Baba ever
threatening Donaghy that he was going to hurt Donaghy or tell the NBA about the
betting.”
On this consequential matter, you should also know that when
Donaghy was released from prison in 2009 and hyping his book, he referred to MARTINO as a “Gambino Crime Family member/associate” who threatened him and his family. When it suited his purposes (garnering
attention for business interests, minimizing his culpability in the scheme,
inviting sympathy), Donaghy said Battista and MARTINO (men he knew for years)
were mobsters, assuming – correctly – the media wouldn’t pause to consider the
FBI and other law enforcement agencies never made such claims (despite an
interest and motive to do so if it was remotely plausible).
When Martino recently approached Donaghy with an offer to help market
Martino’s 2019 film, Donaghy altered his talking points to split Martino from
Battista; now Martino, too, was a mob extortion victim and no longer a
“Gambino Crime Family member/associate” doing the threatening. And Martino is clearly willing to allow
Donaghy to spout his nonsense as long as it helps the film project. As I have chronicled elsewhere, this is now
at least the fifth Martino version of events (starting with his perjurious
testimony before a grand jury), each suited to the needs of the moment. Hopefully at some point people will grasp the
latest scam going on with these two.
Oh, and since folks like Missanelli believe “the mob” threatened
Donaghy, which of course according to Donaghy was the reason for his 2006-07
NBA season crimes, please also know the following.
Instead of being “relieved” pro gambler Battista went into rehab
(as Donaghy claims – after all, now “the mob” wasn’t making him fix/bet his
games so he stopped!), here is what really happened. Battista went into rehab for addiction to
prescription pills on 3/18/07. The
scheme continued, however, simply with a different pro gambler, Pete Ruggieri (often
wrongly identified, as in this “interview”, as a “bookie”). Like Battista, Ruggieri isn’t a mobster
whatsoever, and like Battista he never threatened Donaghy to keep
fixing/betting games he officiated. Once
Ruggieri correctly assessed the scheme after a handful of games officiated by
Donaghy (betting lines were moving considerably – word was out the games were
being fixed), Ruggieri shut the scheme down. Source for that? Pete Ruggieri. Don’t believe Ruggieri (who, like Donaghy, Martino,
and other pro gamblers, cooperated with the feds)?
Here are the relevant portions of what MARTINO told the FBI:
“Around March 2007, Baba went into drug rehab. At that point, [Donaghy] told Martino that he
wanted Martino to continue the scheme with Pete Ruggieri.”
And (emphasis added)…
“After Ruggieri decided to shut the scheme down, Donaghy
pushed Martino to take one more game.”
If the media did its job they would notice Battista’s plea
deal is for activities through March 2007 (when he went into rehab),
while everyone else’s plea agreements are for activities through April
2007. Now you know why. It is simply a shrewd, self-serving Donaghy
lie “the mob” was involved at all, much less that it accounted for Donaghy’s
crimes in the ’06-07 season. If Donaghy
is looking over his shoulder for anything, it shouldn’t be for “the mob” it
should be for a conscience.
Incredibly there is much more demonstrably absurd discussion
in the 26-minute Donaghy-Martino appearance on Missanelli’s 11/1/19 show (e.g., retired
FBI SSA Phil Scala’s supposed comments, Martino denying he was the source of
the info re Donaghy’s alleged Las Vegas mistress, Donaghy’s book, Donaghy’s
alleged addiction, the FBI and NBA investigations, etc.), but you get the
point.
While I am open to the possibility media types like
Missanelli may be aware of Donaghy’s falsehoods but consciously ignoring them
for content, clicks, and ratings, I don’t believe that is what is
happening. Missanelli is clearly unaware
of everything penned above, even though the information has been available for
years. I would love to know what the
career hustlers could have said to Missanelli on air which would have sufficiently troubled him, causing him to realize this was
all bs and alerting his audience to this reality.
With the evidenced-based critique
of the Missanelli interview of Donaghy and Martino behind us, let’s return to
host Missanelli ironically boasting of his probing interviewing skills. Just in case you think this is being
overstated, here is what one of his broadcast team members tweeted about the
appearance:
It is sad to say, but I don’t
believe this is radio shtick. Rather,
all evidence points to this radio crew (like plenty of others) being wholly
unprepared for an evidenced-based interview, and thus the result was allowing
Donaghy to manipulate and hustle their audience (again). Indeed, after the 11/1/19 Donaghy appearance,
Missanelli boasted he “just about cross-examined him.”
The Missanelli interview disgrace
is unfortunately the rule with Donaghy's numerous media appearances, and I have yet to see
an evidence-based exception in this round of attention. That
Missanelli is a former journalist and law school grad promoting himself as a
serious analyst on a major platform, however, arguably makes it worse.
spg
∞ I went on to publish
a critically-acclaimed and best-selling book on the scandal, along with presenting my
findings at academic conferences and training law enforcement professionals,
attorneys, etc. on the matter. My work was also cited in a formal statement before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade hearing in 2016.
*I was invited by the producers to take part in
the Martino film. Once I grasped the
scam, I turned it down without hesitation - they made it
very clear historical accuracy was irrelevant and that profit, however
achieved, was the only goal.
Martino reached out personally to Battista, who turned the
opportunity from his old friend down for the same reasons I did. Unbeknownst to me until very recently,
Battista was approached later for him to accept a fee to promote the film. Want to guess who reached out - on
repeated occasions - offering a fee to Battista, the “Gambino Crime Family
member/associate” Tim Donaghy continues to say threatened him and his family in
2006? Yep - Tim Donaghy! Battista turned the money down again, of
course, but not before Donaghy offered his early take on the film to Battista,
texting, “Just an FYI I watch the movie.
In my mind you are portrayed the best buy the actor that plays you. Me and Tommy come across as a little stupid
and dumb.”
How people don’t get that Donaghy is a con artist (and worse) is a
mystery to me. Perhaps it is because
prominent personalities like Mike Missanelli continue offering the discredited and disturbed Donaghy
a comfortable, inviting forum, which implicitly affords Donaghy legitimacy and
lends credibility to his bs.
