Dear Tim Donaghy...Thanks for Nothing

Dear Tim Donaghy,

You have a lot of explaining to do.  But I'm guessing your lawyers have already told you that. 

Most people probably didn't recognize your name when they first heard the news. I know I didn't.

By the time the FBI gets through investigating allegations that you shaved points for the mob, though, you're certain to be famous. 

Or at least infamous.

But you don't just have to explain yourself to the Feds and the league, Tim—you have to explain yourself to me and every other sports fans in the world.

Because when all is said and done, this isn't going to be just about you, and it certainly isn't going to be just about the NBA. 

It's going to be about all sports everywhere, and whether or not we fans can ever again put faith in the outcomes of games.  

Thanks to you, Mr. Donaghy, every bad call will make us wonder if we're watching another Tim Donaghy in action.

To be fair, fans have always speculated about refs on the take. In heated moments of fandom, when we ve found ourselves utterly perplexed by a call—or a non-call—we've wondered how the officiating could be so damn bad. And for brief moments, we've imagined some great conspiracy aimed against our teams. 

After our emotions subsided, of course, we were always able to rationally conclude that refs didn't really fix games. But that was the glorious past. Now, thanks to you, it ll be a little harder to reach that conclusion. 

  

And that's not the end of it. Thanks to you, Mr. Donaghy, I'll almost certainly never see my dream of a professional team in Las Vegas come to fruition.

The gambling cloud already chased the NFL and MLB away from Sin City.  I, for one, thought the NBA would look past the gloomy skies and see the sunshine on the other side. But your alleged crimes are sure to undo the groundwork David Stern and the league have laid in Vegas. 

Now, in fact, Stern is more likely to be Mark Cuban's partner on the next season of The Amazing Race than he is to put a team anywhere near the Strip.     

But the worst part is the cynicism. Thanks to you, Mr. Donaghy, sports fans have lost another piece of their innocence. You certainly aren't the first person to open our eyes, and you won't be the last. If anything, your alleged game-fixing only makes you the latest in a long line of individuals to pull back the curtain on what really makes the sports world go 'round:

Money.   

I guess we should've known all along.

Thanks to you, Mr. Donaghy, we'll never be able to forget.

Resentfully yours,

Dave

 

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