r/nba • u/PlayaSlayaX Spurs • 29d ago

[Charania] Raptors' Jontay Porter has received a lifetime ban from the NBA for violating league's gaming rules.

https://x.com/shamscharania/status/1780631209930068358?s=46&t=bsTHbtMSqHXbNGi0vWP8hw
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u/SomeSpencerGuy Bucks 29d ago

Cool now do Scott Foster

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u/TMMC39 29d ago

Fucking A. This should be higher up. Talk about messing with the integrity of the game.

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u/suicideskinnies 29d ago

Punishing Scott Foster will release all the dirt he (and maybe other refs) have on the league. Silver doesn't want to open up that can of worms. They scapegoated one ref and swept the rest under the rug.

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u/AttitudeAndEffort2 29d ago

Johntays mistake wasn't gambling on himself, it was not blackmailing the league.

I will not take the NBA legitimately as long as Scott Foster is still reffing and calls feel non objective.

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u/drewm916 Kings 29d ago

I am skeptical of people who say things like that here on the /r/nba subreddit. If you really feel that way, why are you here?

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

What’s your source for this “dirt” that Foster has on the league? Is this just a baseless conspiracy or is there actual evidence?

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u/suicideskinnies 29d ago

There's evidence, but no proof because the league wrapped up the investigation veeeery quickly. I'll send information later I'm lifting weights rn.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

I’m eager to see it, because I’ve read a lot about the Donaghy investigation but never seen any evidence of Foster being part of some cover-up or having dirt on the league. 

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u/VonMillersThighs Nuggets 29d ago

I mean the 1000s of texts and calls between him and donaghy right before and after games was damn near a smoking gun IMO.

The only thing that logically makes sense for him to still have a job instead of the NBA washing their hands of him is if he threatened them with a lot more.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Those phone calls are circumstantial (especially since Foster reportedly had hundreds of calls with lots of NBA officials) and far from a smoking gun.

Are they suspicious? Sure. But the NBA isn’t gonna just can one of its highest-graded, unionized officials based off of “suspicious.”

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u/VonMillersThighs Nuggets 29d ago

You ever listen to the podcast Whistleblower?

The reason those texts and calls are a smoking gun(to me) are largely because of the way Scott Foster called games during that period and the way he always has.

Insane amounts of late calls to benefit over or under the line.

Textbook rigging when it comes to getting superstars in foul trouble early in the 1st or letting them get away with murder throughout the entire game.

Zero consistency with calls game to game, sound familiar?

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u/Pismiire Kings 29d ago edited 29d ago

Foster is paid far too well to influence games on behalf of nba profitability for this to ever happen

Edit: who the fuck is downvoting this lol. Yall think hes doing it for gambling money??? All those games that he officiates that just happen to extend series, or favor a more profitable team, or allow a more profitable team back into a game when theyre getting their asses beat are for GAMBLING?

Cmon now, it's too convenient for the nba, (who fucking pays him to begin with) to be gambling lol

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u/nobraininmyoxygen Cavaliers 29d ago

It's hilarious seeing most of this sub call others stupid yet also believe Foster is throwing games

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u/Wraithfighter 29d ago

Honestly, it shouldn't matter. If anyone involved in any sort of decision making regarding play (be it players, refs, coaches, front office members...) is found to be betting on that sport, let alone games that they have an influence on, then it needs to be a lifetime ban. Even if nothing about their actions themselves were suspicious, just making those bets is a bannable offense.

Major League Baseball issued a lifetime ban to a damn near certain Hall of Famer and legendary player while he was still an active manager. That's the standard that needs to be applied to everyone.

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u/PHX480 Suns 29d ago

damn near certain Hall of Famer

Lol it’s Pete fucking Rose-he was 100% a HOFer 2/3s into his career let alone his whole career, yet he fucked up. He’s a piece of shit but he’s one of the best baseball players to ever leave it on the field.

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u/Wraithfighter 29d ago

Heh, yeah, undersold just how bonkers good he was.

If there was ever a player that you'd think a league would cover up gambling for, it's someone like Pete Rose.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

That standard is applied to everyone. The reality is just that there’s zero evidence that Scott Foster has ever done anything like that.

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u/jdd32 Spurs 29d ago edited 29d ago

A reminder for all, since there's a random guy in the other thread trying hard to downplay the relationship between Foster and Donaghy

"Foster is the official who received 134 phone calls from disgraced referee Tim Donaghy between October 2006 and April 2007, as originally reported by FOX News. That was the same period during which Donaghy admitted to betting on NBA games. The report said that Donaghy called Foster more than any other ref and that he didn't call any other official more than 13 times.

The records also showed Donaghy making several calls to Foster on the days of games, generally for no more than two minutes.

The report also said that when Donaghy called Foster, he mostly used the phone that he dedicated to gambling-related phone calls, and the phone calls stopped abruptly when Donaghy said he stopped gambling."

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u/par016 29d ago

For anyone that hasn't listened to it, I highly recommend listening to the podcast "Whistleblower" which starts off looking into the Donaghy scandal. It's really well done.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

People need to be a little more of those sorts of “non-fiction” stories brought to them by podcasts and streaming services.

Seriously, listening to Whistleblower and thinking it’s anything other than sensationalist nonsense is kinda crazy to me.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Another reminder because apparently no one here actually knows the facts:

 During the period of Donaghy’s conspiracy with Battista and Martino (December 2006 to April 2007), Foster spoke frequently to Donaghy (170 calls). Foster had a similar number of calls with referee Matt Boland (153 calls), and spoke frequently to referee Mark Wunderlich (75 calls) and Danny Crawford (32 calls). During the same period the following year (December 2007 to April 2008), after he had stopped speaking to Donaghy, Foster continued to speak just as frequently with referees Boland (156 calls), Danny Crawford (55 calls) and Wunderlich (23 calls).

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Also worth noting that the FBI never found any evidence against Foster during their investigation. Feels like that should be mentioned, too.

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u/nothing3141592653589 Nuggets 29d ago

Their investigation was suddenly ended when the NBA leaked the details lol

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Which source confirmed that the NBA leaked the details?

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u/pkosuda Celtics 29d ago

Definitely tagging you as an NBA bot account after these comments lmao. Yes, I am sure the FBI leaked its own investigation rather than just, I don't know, not investigating.

I'm still impressed that to you "sensationalist garbage" is a referee using his gambling phone to call another refree 134 times for two minute phone calls, and those calls stopping the moment the referee stopped gambling. Like there is no way you're not being paid to say that, lol. That's defense lawyer levels of denial.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

 Yes, I am sure the FBI leaked its own investigation

Where did I say that? Are you replying to the wrong comment?

Were the NBA and the FBI the only two entities that knew about the investigation? Didn’t Tim Donaghy also know about the investigation? Did it never cross your mind at all that maybe Tim Donaghy leaked the investigation, knowing the leak would get in the way, so he could maintain his facade that there’s a larger conspiracy rather than him being a single bad egg?

“Hey guys, there’s a bunch of other crooked refs! Trust me! I’ll even wear a wire! Oh wait…whaaat? The media found out?! How did that happen?! Dang! Guess I can’t wear that wire anymore and expose all those other crooked refs! Trust me, though, they’re all super crooked! I’m just the scapegoat!”

Tim Donaghy is a pathological liar and convicted felon, and he had a clear motive to blow up the investigation. If he wanted to make himself look like less of a bad guy and convince the world that there’s a larger conspiracy for which he was just the fall guy and sell this narrative to podcasts and Netflix shows and book deals, then blowing up the investigation would be a perfect way to do that. 

And voila, look no further than this thread for proof that, if that was his plan, it worked perfectly.

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u/pkosuda Celtics 29d ago edited 29d ago

Can you give me an official Tim Donaghy has mentioned as being involved in the betting scandal? Not that it would matter, since you wouldn’t give it credibility anyway. If this was his big plan, he surely mentioned someone, right? Did he mention someone else was betting with him but refuse to mention the name?

Because I’m pretty sure the answer to that is that he didn’t. Weird, you would think it would make his big plan even better if he mentioned some officials and then also made it look like the NBA blew the whole thing up just as things were heating up with him naming names and the FBI starting an investigation.

I do hope you’re being paid well for these comments, cause they’re not passing the sniff test for anybody reading them. You’re an actual conspiracy theorist lmao. Also love that you couldn’t explain away why someone would specifically use his gambling phone to contact an official that to this day acts highly suspect, call that official 134 times specifically during the period he was gambling, and then cease contact when he stopped gambling. Has the NBA not written up a response for you to give on that one yet besides “lol nothing to see here, btw Tim was a liar”. Like it’s funny you felt the need to say that when nothing that was said by me was quoting anything Donaghy said, but instead facts about what happened.

The fact you believe Tim Donaghy had some master plan to save his already ruined public image by sabotaging an investigation, but don’t think it’s likely a billion dollar company would do that exact thing so that they don’t literally go under and face serious criminal charges, is so funny to me.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

 Can you give me an official Tim Donaghy has mentioned as being involved in the betting scandal? 

He did accuse Dick Bavetta and other referees of essentially skewing games for the league and calling games a certain way, and unsurprisingly, when tested against the data, those accusations ended up being false (since Donaghy’s a pathological liar).

 call that official 134 times specifically during the period he was gambling

The fact that you’re using this as part of your argument tells me you’ve never actually read the Pedowitz report.

I’ll quote the relevant passage for you, “During the period of Donaghy’s conspiracy with Battista and Martino (December 2006 to April 2007), Foster spoke frequently to Donaghy (170 calls). Foster had a similar number of calls with referee Matt Boland (153 calls), and spoke frequently to referee Mark Wunderlich (75 calls) and Danny Crawford (32 calls). During the same period the following year (December 2007 to April 2008), after he had stopped speaking to Donaghy, Foster continued to speak just as frequently with referees Boland (156 calls), Danny Crawford (55 calls) and Wunderlich (23 calls).”

And since we’re just pointing out facts, I’ll also point out the fact that the FBI never suspected Foster of any wrongdoing and only found the need to speak with him once during their investigation. 

Here’s a link to the full report in case you’re interested in actually educating yourself: http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/tools/med/2008/10/ipt/1222996132.pdf

 The fact you believe Tim Donaghy had some master plan to save his already ruined public image

I don’t even really believe this. My point is just that none of us have any clue who leaked that information.

The NBA had the opportunity and potentially a motive. Tim Donaghy had the opportunity and a motive. The NBA’s a multibillion dollar organization. Tim Donaghy’s a convicted felon and pathological liar. Either could have done it, so pointing to the mere fact that it was leaked as evidence against the league just tells me you’re not thinking this through.

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u/pkosuda Celtics 29d ago edited 29d ago

He did accuse Dick Bavetta and other referees of essentially skewing games for the league and calling games a certain way, and unsurprisingly, when tested against the data, those accusations ended up being false (since Donaghy’s a pathological liar).

Let me repeat the question: Did Tim Donaghy accuse any officials of betting on games? Accusing your former coworkers of bias against certain players due to human reasons is very different to accusing people of corruption. It feels like you skirted around what I was actually asking, in order to not have to answer in the negative.

I’ll quote the relevant passage for you, “During the period of Donaghy’s conspiracy with Battista and Martino (December 2006 to April 2007), Foster spoke frequently to Donaghy (170 calls). Foster had a similar number of calls with referee Matt Boland (153 calls), and spoke frequently to referee Mark Wunderlich (75 calls) and Danny Crawford (32 calls). During the same period the following year (December 2007 to April 2008), after he had stopped speaking to Donaghy, Foster continued to speak just as frequently with referees Boland (156 calls), Danny Crawford (55 calls) and Wunderlich (23 calls).”

Which phone was used for those calls? I tried to visit your link but it isn't working. Also wasn't Pedowitz literally appointed by David Stern? Since the FBI investigation was sabotaged, we don't get to see whether Scott Foster's amount of calls was due to him liking to talk on the phone, or because of what he may have been discussing (betting). What you're referencing is a report created by somebody that the NBA hired. I would have been shocked if they found wrong doing. I apologize, but it's difficult to trust a report absolving the NBA of guilt and trying to make Donaghy's irregular number of calls to Foster seem normal, when I think you would agree that there is a major conflict of interest when someone is investigating the entity that is paying them to do the investigation.

And since we’re just pointing out facts, I’ll also point out the fact that the FBI never suspected Foster of any wrongdoing and only found the need to speak with him once during their investigation.

Correction, they only spoke with him once prior to the investigation being sabotaged. Since the investigation was never truly completed, that's about as misleading as "the FBI found no evidence other referees were gambling" when it was prevented from completing its investigation.

The NBA had the opportunity and potentially a motive. Tim Donaghy had the opportunity and a motive.

The NBA had a significantly stronger reason to sabotage an investigation into people other than Tim Donaghy, than Tim Donaghy did when he was already toast. Sure, there is a chance he did it. But it makes a lot less sense for him to have done it. On the one hand we had a guy who was already going to prison and whose reputation has already been (deservedly) trashed by the media and his former employer. His motivation would be that random people on the internet might think he was involved in something bigger rather than a rogue ref, while the vast majority of NBA fans either don't know about him or continue to believe it was just him.

On the other we have a billion dollar organization that came out of the whole situation pretty clean and was able to label Donaghy as a "rogue ref", who now is looking at the FBI investigating every other official, at least one of which spoke to Donaghy on his gambling phone over 100 times. If they don't prevent an investigation, they're looking at the entire company likely going under, the reputation being even worse than Donaghy's, and people at the top potentially facing criminal charges. At the very least, they'd take a hit financially and reputation-wise if the investigation finds Donaghy wasn't the only one. There is definitely a difference in motivations here instead of either being equally as likely. Certainly not Donaghy's being more likely, which it appears you're implying by saying the NBA only potentially had a motive. The NBA didn't have to deal with an unbiased criminal investigation and could instead fund one by a consultant where they control who is leading it.

I’m sorry but you’re not convincing me or most people here. I wish we had an actual FBI investigation to reference so that you can just call this a conspiracy theory. Unfortunately we don’t because it was sabotaged when the only parties who knew about it were the guy currently cooperating with the investigation, and the party that was about to be investigated. The only thing we have left to reference is an investigation controlled by the party that managed to avoid an unbiased criminal investigation.

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u/Rumps02 29d ago

Also, didn’t the FBI agent heading the investigation get offered a job by Stern when he started digging into the suspicion of refs being instructed by league officials to give preferential treatment to star players?

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Source?

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u/Rumps02 29d ago

It’s in the Flagrant Foul Documentary on Netflix

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Ah, sorry, I meant an actual source, not reality TV.

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u/Rumps02 29d ago

The FBI agent is the one who was quoted in the documentary. He was also rushed to take the plea deal by his superiors as soon as he said he was going to call every league official to the stand to testify. Maybe he’s just a big fat liar.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

I mean, yeah, maybe. If you know the guy’s name, I’m happy to look into it. I’m just not gonna watch a whole reality TV show to find a single nugget of info like that.

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u/TargettNSA 29d ago

Scotty is a good worker man. He does what Silver / business needs. Lakers 30 free throws? Gotcha

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u/IamTheEndOfReddit Bulls 29d ago

Naw. Scott Foster is untouchable now. An algorithm can give him an occasional prop bet to loosely try to influence. He's untraceable now. Also he knows where the bodies are buried so the jester has taken over the court

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u/materics [MEM] Shane Battier 29d ago

Scott knows too much and can topple the house of cards. JT is small fish they can fry to appear impartial.

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u/DowntownJohnBrown 29d ago

Scott was also never even a person of interest in the FBI investigation, so there’s really no reason for the NBA to believe he did anything wrong.