Like disgraced former NBA official Tim Donaghy’s continued accusation of Robert Sarver recently, piling on the Phoenix Suns owner helps no one now, or ever.
Former NBA official Tim Donaghy, on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Wednesday, re-iterated a claim made several years ago in his book, in an interview to now hock his new movie, that one of the reasons the Phoenix Suns vs San Antonio Semifinals Game 3 in 2007 was fixed in favor of the Spurs, is because of Group Supervisor Tommy Nunez’s hatred towards Suns owner Robert Sarver.
This information (if true) helps absolutely no one then and should have stayed in his corrupt brain, bouncing around forever between his memories of fixed games, and the guilt of the shame he has brought upon his family.
Hindsight is 20/20, and when people have been disgraced, it is very easy for them to throw shade, heap blame on others either for or in place of their own indiscretions, or even attempt to re-write history all together – just ask former Phoenix Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough who recently claimed that he believed he had a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers in place for the first overall pick in 2013 and would have selected Victor Oladipo who happened to go second overall and have the 9th best Win Share of all players in that draft to date.
The issue with Donaghy’s claim isn’t that he continues to call out Nunez’s hatred of Sarver and used an easy Suns fan trope for why we all know the franchise has sucked for the last ten years.
The problem is that it helped no one but himself to throw another official under the bus – and it helps no one now.
And in truth, while Donaghy claimed that the reason was because of Sarver’s berating of officials (along with Nunez’ supposed love of the city of San Antonio), Sarver had only been owner for three years.
What could he done that really pissed off any particular official?
After all – this was a time period in which Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban had still himself only been around for a few years (he bought the franchise in 2000), and had to be annoying officials as much as he was annoying fans.
Why exactly would one official have narrowed in on Sarver then of all people – in control of the most popular and most likable teams in the league at that time because of the style of play that they ran – as the person to take down?
The claim is just far too perfect today to have been the reason then.
So, what does Donaghy have to gain from this claim?
Well, he knows that Phoenix Suns fans will forever know that that series was stolen from their team by at least one rogue official (Donaghy), a team that seemed destined to win their first NBA Championship, a position the franchise has yet to even had a team relatively close enough to make such a claim.
Therefore, why not take another official (one who had been a very respectable referee for many years and was never implicated for throwing the series), make him an angry ogre who hates the franchise’s owner (who fans now hate as well), and throw some shade his way, taking a little of the un-wanted spotlight off of the one person in all of this who has ever been accused of by name – and spent time in prison for his specific actions?
Phoenix Suns
Whether his claim is entirely factually accurate or not, all he has continued to do is take some of the blame of the franchise having still never won a title off himself, and place it on someone else.
Very classy – for the league’s least classy person in it’s history.
Tim Donaghy didn’t help to ease any of the pain that fans have from that era of stolen opportunities; somehow weaving a story from partial facts – or nothing at all – that on some level made the whole situation seem like a grand misunderstanding, that he knows the league is in favor of the franchise now, that he always hated the Spurs and so helping that franchise out made him throw up in disgust at night.
Hell – a flat out public apology; a graveling at the feet of the masses in which he begged for forgiveness like Kramer did to his girlfriend in an early episode of Seinfeld.
Crying out for help, tears of regret and disappointment pouring from his eyes, numerous, like the boos from fans he heard in stadiums throughout his retched career.
Nope. The disgraced, classless loser, merely continues to try to take a piece of the blame off of himself, place it on another official and on the Phoenix Suns’ owner, because somehow more wrongs will make him more right.
And coupled with his book, now a feature-length movie, make another buck.
Tim Donaghy sucks. That entire era of Phoenix Suns basketball was a waste because of him, and nothing will ever relieve the pain that fans will feel for the rest of their lives knowing that sports glory had been taken from their well-deserving hands.
His words are nothing more than a bunch of palaver.