NBA has found no other illegal gambling by refs

As the NBA moves beyond last month’s gambling-related guilty pleas by former referee Tim Donaghy, Commissioner David Stern said ongoing questioning of the league’s 60 referees’ personal histories of gambling has not found any other criminal activity.

“We think the fairest way to deal with this is to allow the referees to tell us what the facts are, and our referees are very anxious to tell us what the facts are, and then we will all know,” Stern said Thursday in Las Vegas, where he watched the United States men’s basketball team play in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament. “The speculation is hard for them, but we’re very much on the same page as we seek to move forward. . . . We don’t want to draw any conclusions before we hear everything.”

A radio report last month said Donaghy, a 13-year NBA veteran who resigned amid an FBI investigation in July, was ready to provide the names of 20 other referees who had gambled in some fashion. The NBA prohibits any gambling by its referees except at racetracks during the off-season.

Donaghy, 40, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Aug. 15 to conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting wagering information through interstate commerce and faces up to 25 years in prison.

The NBA then retained former federal prosecutor Lawrence B. Pedowitz to conduct an internal review of any referees’ gambling activities and officiating policies. Interviews with the referees are expected to conclude by Sept. 23, when their training camp begins, but Stern said the due date of Pedowitz’s report was open-ended.

One NBA referee said the officials’ anger toward Donaghy is vitriolic, with many believing he’s cooperating with federal authorities only as an attempt to gain a reduced sentence. The Philadelphia Daily News reported Aug. 23 that several referees from that area, where Donaghy once lived, considered him an abrasive individual who “wore out his welcome” before relocating to Florida.

In an interview with The Times, an NBA referee said, “I knew not to be surprised when he [Donaghy] started squealing.” The referee declined to be identified because of Stern’s league-wide gag order on Donaghy-related subjects.

The referee said he’s “100% confident Donaghy is the only guy who gambled on the league,” and believes the only information Donaghy could offer probably revolved around referees’ “maybe having dinner at a casino and doing some gambling afterward.”

NBA spokesman Tim Frank told The Times in an e-mail, “There have been allegations that other referees violated NBA rules prohibiting casino gaming and the like, but it remains our understanding that Tim Donaghy is the only referee who bet on NBA games.”

Stern said revelations of referees’ playing in NCAA tournament pools “wouldn’t surprise me. Some of them may have bought a lottery ticket or played bingo in a church. I don’t want to pre-judge it, but I think there are some things that would cause me to pause more than others. . . . That is why, rather than speculate . . . the best way to do it is to find out what they did and to understand it all.”

Stern declined to speculate about what kind of revelations about gambling would motivate him to dismiss a referee.

Law enforcement authorities have yet to fully detail what games Donaghy provided information about, and whether he manipulated the outcomes of certain contests. He worked into the second round of this year’s NBA playoffs.

Stern defended his current referees, and the league’s referee supervisory system, which has been criticized by retired officials Mike Mathis and Hue Hollins. “Many people have been happy to condemn [the referees] on the basis of either disgruntled former officials or press reports about what Mr. Donaghy is alleged to have said, and that’s not fair,” Stern said.

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lance.pugmire@latimes.com