When Tim Donaghy talks scandal

M. Haubs of The Painted Area interviewed Sean Patrick Griffin, author of an important new book about the NBA referee betting scandal.

Haubs does a brilliant job of digging into, among other things, the way referee Tim Donaghy himself has controlled this story in the media.

There are many examples, but one of that caught my eye is that Donaghy has said that one of his co-conspirators, James Battista, was incredibly flashy. Griffin discredits a lot of what Donaghy has to say, and in talking to Haubs goes particularly hard in destroying this idea:

That is the most factually incorrect part of [Donaghy's] book.

Granted, it may not be the most important point of his book, but that is one of the most absurd comments, among other absurd comments. Battista is the guy who showed up in federal court one day in shorts and a golf shirt. That is Battista's wardrobe. And anyone who's ever known him, knows him as a "fat slob."

As Battista describes in the book, part of that was for business reasons, it wasn't just for comfort, it was because he didn't want to be a somebody. That was what he had learned years ago, that you don't want to draw attention to yourself.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24957/when-tim-donaghy-talks-scandal

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