Gaming the Game: The Story Behind the NBA Betting Scandal and the Gambler Who Made It Happen is the new book written by Sean Patrick Griffin in cooperation with James “Baba” Battista. Due to be released on Tuesday March 1, the book is about to reopen the Tim Donaghy scandal that briefly crippled the NBA.
Battista was partners in crime with former 13-year veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy. Together the pair created the gambling scandal that shook the league to its very core. While Donaghy cooperated with the FBI, Battista never did and to date has only made one public statement.
Now through Griffin’s thoroughly researched book, Battista finally reveals his side of the story.
In Gaming the Game, Battista claims that it was Donaghy who initiated the idea of gambling on NBA games, something that contradicts Donaghy’s description of events in his book, Personal Foul: A First Person Account of the Scandal that Rocked the NBA.
Going a step further, Battista also states Donaghy was fixing games in which he officiated.
Donaghy has steadfastly denied he ever fixed a game. Both the FBI and the NBA have concurred with his stance. In fact, though convicted, Donaghy wasn’t sent to prison for fixing games (as many people wrongly believe).
Donaghy has already posted on his facebook page, “While I wish Mr. Battista and his author, Mr. Griffin, nothing but the best with their venture, I don't plan on reading this sensationalistic and fictional portrayal of the past events...”
Author Griffin, however, has a very reputable background. He was a police officer and is currently an associate professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington. Griffin spent two years researching his book and loaded it with interviews, government documents and gambling data related to the games in question.
Most importantly, Griffin had access to Battista. The tales he tells will send the reader through the realms of the high-stakes sports gambling world to the depths to which some may sink to win a bet.
While Griffin’s book will undoubtedly be a blow to Tim Donaghy’s reputation, it fails on a few accounts.
For one, the NBA can still claim that Donaghy never fixed a game. In fact, the league states none of its games have been fixed since the early 1950’s. Gaming the Game will not change that stance.
Nor does Griffin and Battista go after Donaghy’s most important claim: that the NBA has been fixing its own games through its veteran referees for higher television ratings and the profits attached to them.
While many chalk this sort of manipulation up to mere “conspiracy theory,” the notion Donaghy may be right on this point still hangs over the NBA’s head.
And Gaming the Game will likely reopen that scab.
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