Rasheed Wallace didn’t buy David Stern’s “rogue official” excuse for the Tim Donaghy scandal and thinks that in actuality, things are way worse.

“I always said to myself and had the thing that there’s no way that the things that he did he could do them by himself,” Wallace said. “I always said that. It’s virtually impossible. The things that he’s been accused of, there’s no way, to me, in my opinion, he could have done those things by himself.”

Asked if he thinks other officials were betting, Wallace said, “Possibly.

“I mean, I’m not sure if they were betting or whatever. But I know it’s going to be, to me, once all this stuff comes out, it’s going to be like — what year was that? — I want to say, was it the ‘32 New York City basketball scandal?”

Despite his penchant for collecting technical fouls, I think ‘Sheed is right on this one.  The idea that Tim Donaghy was the only ref involved in fixing games is absurd.  Anyone who’s seen an NBA game, watching guys like Dick Bavetta and Joey Crawford completely dictate the flow and even the outcome of the game has to know that Stern must have been shitting his pants and did what he had to do.  That is, blame Tim Donaghy for everything and try to maintain the integrity of his league.

But give me a break.  Donaghy may have been the only guy who bet on games, but he definitely wasn’t the only guy to help dictate the outcome.  The number of horrendous – let alone questionable – calls in an NBA game is staggering.  Basketball is one of the hardest sports to officiate, but some of the calls are so bad that the only explanation is that a ref is trying to control the outcome of the game.  What’s in it for the ref?  Nothing, except that the order to do so came from the top.  Gotta keep the home crowds happy, gotta make sure the superstars get their points, and gotta make sure the big market teams are successful.

I hope we get to see the curtain pulled back on this one.

[Boston Herald]