In light of today’s Scott Foster masterpiece, it seemed like a good time to remind everyone that his history is more than just a feud with Chris Paul. He was almost certainly involved in the same gambling scheme that put Tim Donaghy behind bars. (That link is just to Donaghy’s Wikipedia page for anyone unfamiliar with him). In this article from CBS, you can see some more of the details, but I’ll outline what I think are some of the key ones below:
-
Tim Donaghy had a phone exclusively for his betting. On this phone, he made 134 phone calls to Scott Foster.
-
These calls were within the timeframe Donaghy was found to have been betting on games.
-
Donaghy had no more than 13 calls to any other referee on his main phone or his burner
-
Many of the calls were not long before or after games
-
Foster was unable to offer any specific reasoning for why he and Donaghy talked so frequently. He said they could have been talking about anything from family to whether Betty or Wilma was hotter.
-
Donaghy has indicated that other officials were involved, though you could view this as an attempt to get a better bargaining position before his sentencing.
With all of these things in mind, it seems almost certain that Foster was involved in gambling scheme. At the very least, I would say that he was aware. This raises the question of how he could still be refereeing games. Even without a conviction, it seems likely that the NBA would want to move on from Foster given these ties and the negative attention that he brings. At this point, I’ll simply be offering my theory based on what I have gathered about the situation. I think that he has evidence related to this gambling scheme that he holds over the NBA for a few reasons.
- Stern was notified of the FBI investigation into Donaghy before it became public news.
- Stern is credited with much of the rise of the NBA, and a major betting scandal among multiple referees would have seriously damaged the credibility of the league
Reaching into theoretical territory, Stern may have been able to alert others as to the ongoing investigation in order to make Donaghy seem like what he termed a “rogue, isolated criminal”. If Foster was involved and could provide any evidence of NBA coverup attempts, then he would have significant blackmail against the league. He’d be able to avoid prison time and keep his job without fear of losing it, even if he were to use his position to negatively impact teams and players he doesn’t like. Anyway, regardless of my little theory, I think it’s clear that Foster is not a trustworthy official.