What happened to embattled NBA ref Tim Donaghy? Imprisoned for alleged game fixing

It’s often said in sports that if fans are paying more attention to the officials than the players, then the officials aren’t doing a great job. For the most part, basketball aficionados didn’t know much about Tim Donaghy during his tenure as an NBA referee. However, some disturbing allegations about his motivation during games have stuck with his legacy.

Not many children grow up wanting to become referees, but Tim Donaghy was exposed to the power of the whistle at an early age. His father Gerry had been a referee for high profile college basketball games according to the New York Times.

Donaghy was more interested in playing sports than officiating them, but knew that this career track was something he could fall back on.

There’s some dispute as to whether Donaghy played varsity baseball while at Villanova University, but the fact remains that he didn’t have much of a future as an athlete. As a result, he changed course by officiating high school basketball games. With the connections the family had, Donaghy began refereeing in the Continental Basketball Association at 23 years old.

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At 28 years old, Donaghy made it to the NBA. He worked 42 games during the 1994-1995 season, and would get assigned more tilts as his experience grew. Throughout his time as an official through the 2006-2007 season, Donaghy worked the most games involving the Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and Orlando Magic, as per Basketball Reference.

Things got shaky for Donaghy and the NBA after the 2002 NBA playoffs. Donaghy worked Game 6 of the Los Angeles Lakers vs Sacramento Kings Western Conference Finals series. Many, like NBC Sports Bay Area, believe that the calls in that game were questionable at best, and unfair at worst. Donaghy would later say that the NBA fixed that game in the Lakers’ favor.

Away from the court, it was no secret that Donaghy loved to gamble. However, this penchant for wagering started to cause a problem when he was connected to Jimmy Battista and Thomas Mannino. Donaghy would allegedly fix games based on how the two wagered, and would often share tips about how fellow referees called games to aid their other betting plays.

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The NBA would eventually get wind of these rumors, and worked in conjunction with the FBI to get to the bottom of Donaghy’s wrongdoings. This involved pulling game tape from each of Donaghy’s assignments, and logging metrics of calls that he made.

According to ESPN, Donaghy made calls that favored his alleged bet in 23 games out of a select 30 game sample size.

The feds and the league caught up with Donaghy and his scheme. The former NBA referee was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

The league also wanted him to pay over $1.4 million in restitution, but that figure was negotiated down to just over $260,000. Donaghy called his dad on Father’s Day to confess to the allegations in 2007.

Eventually, Donaghy would have the mechanism to get his side of the story out to the public. Operation Flagrant Foul was released on Netflix in 2022, which chronicled Donaghy’s story.

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In the piece, he denied fixing NBA games, and stated that he was routinely decorated by the NBA as one of its best officials. He would admit to giving inside secrets to Battista and Mannino, however.

Donaghy appeared at an event for Major League Wrestling in 2021, fittingly playing the part of a crooked ref. He’s since earned a living investing in real estate, but hasn’t been able to outrun the narrative of his shady past. Donaghy has also publicly spoke about how gambling addiction ruined his life.

In November 2023, Donaghy told VladTV that the NBA explicitly told him to call fouls that benefitted the league's stars. This was curious timing, as the former referee had been out of the spotlight for an extended period of time. Current NBA brass did not respond to Donaghy's claims.

Donaghy told NewsNation in December 2023 that he served time in the same federal prison as reality TV star Todd Chrisley. The latter had given a vivid depiction of the horrible conditions he faced during his sentence, and Donaghy went one step further, adding that they were even worse than Chrisley described.