With peers in trouble, NBA earns a free throw

Two men accused of betting on NBA games using information provided by referee Tim Donaghy recently pleaded not guilty, and a lawyer for one suggested that other referees also were involved.

Tim Donaghy. Remember him?

People can identify Matt Walsh, the gofer who handled videotapes for the Patriots and is the central figure in the scandal involving accusations that the club broke NFL rules by taping opponents’ practices.

They know Brian McNamee well as the anonymous trainer who became the central figure in the Mitchell Report on the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

But ask them the name of the referee who bet on NBA games and supplied information to gamblers, and they might shrug. Troy Donahue? Artie Donovan?

The biggest figure in what should have been the most scandalous of the sports scandals of the past year — a corrupt referee — has faded into obscurity. The sport that should have been crippled for years because of the scandal not only has recovered but seems to be flourishing.

David Stern, please come forward to accept the Nobel Prize for Waste Disposal. The NBA commissioner apparently has buried this scandal deep in some New Jersey landfill.

Congress held numerous hearings about steroids in baseball — so much so that HBO is considering turning them into a series based on the documentary “When It Was a Game,” only this one would be called “When It Was a Pharmacy.”

A U.S. senator is dragging the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell to the Hill to answer questions about Spygate, the Patriots’ taping scandal. Sen. Arlen Specter is not dropping the ball on this one, demanding meetings with more league officials to determine whether the outcomes of any games were affected by the taping.

“We have a right to have honest football games,” Specter said.

What the senator actually meant was “we have a right to have honest football games on Comcast, as soon as the NFL comes up with the money.”

You don’t need a magic bullet to figure out the motivational path of this attack: Comcast is battling the NFL over fees for the NFL Network. Comcast is based in Pennsylvania and is Specter’s second-largest political contributor, the first being Comcast’s Washington lobbying firm.

So why no C-SPAN drama about Donaghy and corrupt NBA referees? Nobody’s ox was being gored enough? Not attention-grabbing enough? No money in it?

Rep. Bobby Rush asked in July to meet with Stern about the scandal, which Rush said potentially could be “one of the most damaging scandals in the history of American sports.”

Then, nothing.

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