Personal Foul by Tim Donaghy

Author:Tim Donaghy
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press
Published: 2010-07-02T10:00:00+00:00

After my unexpected contact with Ba Ba in December of 2006, I rarely spoke with him—it was all Tommy, and it was all the time. Tommy and I were on the phone as much as I had been with Jack. Daily for sure, always talking about the same thing.

“Who do you like tonight, Tim?” Tommy asked. “Got any winners for us?”

Even though Tommy and I had been friends since the ninth grade, our contact during those months in 2006 and 2007 was stressful. Ba Ba’s involvement was a festering sore that wouldn’t go away. Still, every time I picked a winner, the cash register in my brain would ring up another $2,000 sale. Cha-ching! To make those winning picks, I had to constantly work the phones, looking for a tip, an inadvertent slip, or anything else to gain an edge and beat the house. I certainly wasn’t calling a psychic hotline or some betting expert’s 900 number. No, I was plugged-in and stealing inside information like a pickpocket lifts a wallet from a mark on a crowded commuter train headed for the suburbs. You see, I was talking to people who knew the inside stuff, the kind of scoop that is very reliable and usually paid dividends. I was talking to my very own colleagues—NBA referees—and they had no clue what I was doing.

Although I chatted with all the referees at one time or another, I spoke with three of them on a regular basis. You could say that they were my go-to guys, but that would be unfair. The information they unwittingly passed along was just one part of the overall equation, but sometimes it was a very big part, and I never passed on any opportunity to land the big fish.

Mark Wunderlich was a Philadelphia guy, and our friendship came easy. We played golf and cards at the country club and our families socialized together frequently. Mark was a member at Concord Country Club in Concordville, Pennsylvania. Coincidentally, Jack Concannon and Pete Ruggieri were also members and knew Mark well. I played golf with Mark and Jack on several occasions and we had a ball. Mark was a real jokester and the three of us would laugh our way through the entire round. Mark also played golf with Jack and Pete on Thursdays in the summer. Mark and I spoke on the phone regularly, gossiping about other referees and the big shots in the front office. Mostly, I was looking for information relevant to games played later that night or a day or two later. I was trolling for a fresh tip, and there were moments when I felt like a streetwalker cruising for tricks on Sunset Boulevard. It was common for Mark to call and leave a teasing message on my cell phone.

“Tim, you gotta call me ASAP. I’ve got a big scoop!” he’d yell excitedly.

I would immediately call him back to hear the big news of the day.

“Bavetta has the game tonight and Vegas took it off the board because too much money was bet one way!” he’d report giddily.

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