The Fix Is In, page 15
Even so, by now the NBA had had enough. They had been through this once before in 1992 with the Bouler ordeal. That two-week “investigation” ended with commissioner David Stern announcing, “This situation has been investigated with complete cooperation of Michael and his attorneys and [the head of the NBA investigation] Judge Lacey has assured us that there appears to be no reason for the NBA to take action against Michael.”48 In reality, the “two-week investigation” consisted of a two-and-a-half-hour meeting between Jordan, his attorneys, and top NBA officials. The NBA never questioned either Bouler or any of the local or federal investigating officers in the case, and never asked to see the records from Bouler’s trial. It’s no wonder there appeared to be no reason to take action against Jordan.
Jordan was merely given a slap on the wrist and told to watch who he associates with. He himself claimed to Chicago Tribune writer Bob Greene, “Was I gambling with goons who had bad reputations? Yeah, I was. Should I not gamble with goons anymore? Yeah, I shouldn’t gamble with goons.”
But now, in 1993, Jordan was on strike two-and-one-half. During this second, and much more thorough investigation, the league was to discover that not only were the amounts of money involved larger, but also that the accusations were much more damning. According to the book Money Players: Days and Nights Inside the New NBA, in July 1993 the NBA interviewed Esquinas in its New York offices. During that interview, Esquinas told the investigators that in March of 1992, he had overheard a telephone conversation Jordan was having with an unknown person. During that phone call, Jordan talked about a betting line, saying “So you say the line is seven points.”49 Of what game, it is unknown. But this was a serious accusation. If Jordan was indeed gambling on sports, then the rules of the investigation should have changed.
The question is, how credible did the NBA think this allegation was? I believe they took it as quite credible. They most definitely did not want Jordan to become the NBA’s version of Pete Rose, who was a certain Hall of Famer until he was banned for life over his gambling addiction. What was potentially even more threatening to the league than MJ’s gambling was the fact that he was consistently associating with unseemly types. He was putting himself in a position where he could easily be blackmailed, perhaps into doing something on the court like shaving points or worse, throwing games. I think at this point the NBA and Commissioner David Stern stepped in and talked to Michael Jordan about “retirement.”
Though I will get into Jordan’s first “retirement” later, what’s interesting to note here is that a mere two days after Jordan retired in October 1993, the NBA concluded its five-month investigation into Jordan’s gambling. Curiously, it found nothing of significance.
But there were obvious omissions. Take the story Magic Johnson related in the book When Nothing Else Matters. While MJ’s teammate on the Olympic “Dream Team” in Barcelona in 1992, Magic claimed that Jordan spent more time there playing all-night poker games or round after round of golf rather than practicing. He was constantly racing around from his basketball obligations to his gambling interests. Yet none of this was ever reported.
Once retired from playing basketball, Jordan became part owner of the Washington Bullets/Wizards. Even then, he still gambled like a freak. Author Michael Leahy details a MJ escapade at the Mohegan Sun casino when Jordan spent all night playing blackjack “losing what for most people would have been their life savings.”50 According to Leahy, Jordan played all night, down some $500,000 at one point before managing to leave the casino around 8 a.m. up nearly $800,000. In 2006, Jordan made local headlines when he won a No-Limit Texas Hold’em charity poker tournament. He beat some 120 other players to win the event.
When interviewed by Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes in 2005, Jordan would talk about his gambling, saying, “Yeah, I’ve gotten myself into situations where I would not walk away and I’ve pushed the envelope. Is that compulsive? Yeah, it depends on how you look at it. If you’re willing to jeopardize your livelihood and your family, then yeah.”51
1993-2005 - During this period, stories of professional athletes associating with gamblers or gambling themselves dried up. Considering the time it took for many of these other gambling stories and allegations to come to the surface, it’s not surprising that more modern-day tales have yet to be heard. When a constant pattern of behavior from pro athletes stretches back 100 years, it is most likely that something of note occurred during that 12-year span. What exactly, and by whom, remains a question for which answers are still sought.
Though stories about the pros dried up during this period, on the college level, point-shaving incidents continued and are still occurring. Two members of Arizona State’s basketball team were busted for point shaving during the 1993-1994 season. In 1995, two starting players for the Northwestern Wildcats basketball team were charged for the same offense. Then in 1996, 13 members of Boston College’s football team were suspended for point shaving (amazingly, it was BC’s second point-shaving scandal; the first came in 1978-1979 thanks to their basketball team and Goodfellas real-life mobster Henry Hill). Even in 2006, the University of Toledo’s football and basketball team were both under investigation for point shaving. One of Toledo’s football players was officially charged at the beginning of 2007.
Perhaps even more frightening is the following fact from the book Bloody Sundays. According to author Mike Freeman, “A 1999 survey by sports agent Ralph Cindrich of 75 draft-rated college football players found that 56 percent of the respondents believed that there were college athletes who had bet on the outcome of a game in which they participated, while 11 percent said they were aware of at least one incident in which a college football player bet against his own team on the outcome of a game in which he participated.”52 That meant eight of the 75 players knew another player that had bet against his own team. Why would a player do that unless he was certain of the outcome? If he was certain his team was going to lose (or not cover the spread), how much less than 100 percent was that player putting forth on the field? An even bigger question to ask then is, if we extrapolate those numbers beyond 75 players to the entire draft class, does that 11 percent number hold true? If it does, how many college players might be out there shaving points?
If so many college players are gambling on their own sport and games, where are the pro athletes that are doing the same? Since only the NFL completely bans gambling on any pro sports (the other leagues simply disallow gambling on their own sport), gambling athletes most likely exist everywhere. Amazingly, the ones catching the most heat play in the NHL.
Philadelphia Flyers’ Mike Knuble told the Delaware County Daily Times newspaper, “We can’t bet on hockey. That’s grounds for getting kicked out of the league. Some club rules say you’re not allowed to bet on any sports, but it’s a dirty little secret everybody has.” One such player was former NHL All-Star Jaromir Jagr. While a member of the Washington Capitals, Jagr admitted to owing the offshore gambling website CaribSports some $500,000 in losses. The story supposedly only leaked to the media because Jagr stopped making the scheduled payments to the website to settle up the debt. Jagr’s lawyers claimed Jagr himself didn’t make all of the bets; an unnamed friend had access to his internet account and was responsible for some of the losses. CaribSports owner William Caesar, who was the likely source of the leak, told Sports Illustrated that Jagr’s account was specially set up so that he could not bet on NHL games. Even so, Jagr wasn’t one to immediately settle up his debts. Twice the NHLer had liens issued against him by the IRS for failing to pay his taxes. In 1999 he was hit for $350,000, and in 2003 for another $3.3 million. It was not surprising to see Jagr flee both the NHL and North America in 2008 to play hockey in Russia. Another NHL All-Star gambling during his playing days was Jeremy Roenick who reportedly bet $100,000 with a sports tout service. Roenick took the Barkley approach, saying “I’m not a poor man. I can go out and afford to spend a couple thousand dollars I want to put on a hockey game, I mean, a football game or basketball game, something like that. That’s my God-given right.”53 And yes, he really let slip that “hockey game” bit.
Perhaps the NHL escaped an even bigger scandal when its Director of Officiating and Hall of Fame referee Andy Van Hellemond resigned in 2004. It was reported by various sources within the Canadian press that Van Hellemond was borrowing money from numerous NHL officials in order to pay off debts believed to be from gambling. He would request various amounts from the refs he lorded over, asking for anywhere from $100 to $10,000. One former NHL referee quoted in The National Post made it sound as if Van Hellemond was practically begging for cash, asking for a $500 loan prior to a game. The NHL looked into the allegations and of course, found nothing of note. But because of his post within the NHL, it raises some suspicions. Van Hellemond had not just access but direct control over the NHL’s entire officiating staff. What kind of sway could such a person have over a referee? What sort of deals could have been made? Especially considering Van Hellemond was in charge of handing out the lucrative playoff assignments for referees.
2006 - The NHL wasn’t off the hook just yet. Early in 2006, it was revealed that former NHL star and then-current Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach Rock Tocchet was operating a sport gambling ring. Apparently Tocchet understood that it was more profitable to book bets rather than to make them. Working with a New Jersey state trooper and a New Jersey businessman, Tocchet and company took in over $1.7 million in a 40-day period booking some 1,000 wagers. The scary part was, more than a dozen unnamed NHL players were placing bets, which of course were on everything but hockey games. This even included hockey god Wayne Gretzky’s wife who plunked down a reported $500,000, including $75,000 alone on the Super Bowl, through Tocchet. When asked about his wife’s betting habits, Gretzky responded, “Oh really, I don’t know. You’d have to ask her that.”54 Gretzky managed to play dumb rather well, once quoted as saying “I’m trying to figure it all out.”55 Gretzky needed to. He was the Coyotes’ managing partner, head coach, and Tocchet’s boss at the time this story made headlines.
Named “Operation Slap Shot,” the investigation into Tocchet also included a search to see if any NHL players were passing along inside information regarding NHL games. Never mind that Tocchet was an active coach and former player who knew more than enough to pass along inside info to whoever wanted it. That end of the investigation seemed to turn up nothing, perhaps, in part, because hockey isn’t a heavily gambled sport. Nonetheless, none of the players who were gambling illegally through Tocchet have yet to be named or publicly disciplined by the NHL.
When asked if he’d ever bet on hockey, Tocchet stated simply “no.” His lawyer, Kevin Marino, was more direct. Prior to Tocchet’s arraignment, Marino stated, “allegations that Rick Tocchet financed an illegal gambling operation with organized crime is categorically false and irresponsible…Mr. Tocchet will fight false charges with the same grit and resolve he displayed during his illustrious playing career.”56 That he did, until May 2007 when Tocchet pleaded guilty to financing a sports gambling ring. Tocchet’s relatively quick plea may have saved the NHL loads of trouble. Sans a trial, no testimony would ever be heard and the depths of the case never needed to be probed.
In August 2007, Tocchet received two years’ probation for his role in the gambling ring. As for Tocchet’s two partners, the New Jersey area businessman received the same sentence while the New Jersey state trooper was sentenced to five years in prison. At this time, Tocchet’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, again made a bold blanket statement in his client’s honor saying, “Mr. Tocchet never placed a bet on professional hockey. Mr. Tocchet never took a bet on professional hockey. He in no way compromised the integrity of the game of hockey or the National Hockey League.”57Yet the criminal investigation of Tocchet and company covered less than two months of wagers. It’s never been reported exactly how long Tocchet was running this ring (years, maybe?); to say hockey was never bet upon wasn’t completely provable.
Meanwhile, the NHL hired Robert Cleary, who was the lead prosecutor in the Unabomber case, to run their side of the gambling investigation on Tocchet. As soon as Tocchet was sentenced, the NHL released a statement that read, in part, “In light of today’s events, Mr. Cleary is now in a position to conclude his independent investigation.”58 Was Cleary aware of that? It is rather amazing that Mr. Cleary’s investigation ended precisely when Tocchet was officially sentenced by the state. And just like the unnamed NHL players who were gambling through Tocchet, the public has yet to hear what the NHL’s lead investigator discovered in his somewhat truncated search through the NHL’s gambling underworld.
Remarkably, by November 2008 Tocchet was back coaching behind a NHL bench. Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Barry Melrose, who had left his job as a “talking head” for ESPN to join the team, was fired just 16 games into the 2008-09 season. Who did the Lightning decide was the best replacement? Rick Tocchet. He was back in the league with zero discipline from the NHL and little to no protest from fans or the media. Originally just named the “interim” head coach through the end of the 2008-2009 season, Tocchet was signed to a three-year deal in May of 2009 to be the team’s long-term solution behind the bench.
2007 - “I can’t believe it’s happening to us,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern during the press conference that confirmed 13-year veteran referee Tim Donaghy had been busted by the FBI for gambling on NBA games. Perhaps Stern had a right to be shocked. Despite “subject[ing] our referees to extensive security checks, to the limit provided by the law,” as Stern stated, no one within the league saw this coming.
The NBA, like every other major league, had indeed conducted background checks on its referees. The league used the Arkin Group, which was led by the former head of the CIA’s worldwide operations, as the agency to run these checks. They can be incredibly invasive. In his book Inside the Meat Grinder, former NFL umpire Chad Brown described the process he had to endure to move up from the college ranks to become a member of a NFL officiating crew. Though the NFL and NBA are different entities, considering Commissioner Stern’s words it is doubtful the workup they do on a prospective referee recruit varies by much in either league. As Brown detailed, he first received a letter informing him he was a “candidate” for the NFL. He went for an interview during which he was in his own words “interrogated” by NFL supervisor Jack O’Cain for about two hours. He was then subjected to both written intelligence and psychological examinations which lasted another hour. Succeeding there, he was then deemed a “finalist” for the NFL which opened him up to a background check. As a NFL representative explained this process to him, “We call current employers, past employers, friends, relatives. We do a detailed financial history, interview neighbors, and do an extensive education history. We will often interview a former teacher. In your case, we’ve decided to interview your second-grade teacher.” A private detective was indeed sent out by the NFL to interview Brown’s neighbor. He knew that only because the misdirected investigator rang Brown’s doorbell instead of his neighbor’s by mistake.59According to the NFL, it subjects all of its referees to this sort of background check every three to four years.
Major League Baseball also subjects its umpires to background checks. In the wake of the Donaghy story breaking into the national spotlight, MLB stepped up its program only to find that some of its umpires weren’t too happy with the types of questions being asked. According to an article published on SportsIllustrated.com in January 2008, MLB investigators were asking neighbors of some umpires whether the umpire in question was living outside his means, throwing wild parties, beating his wife, growing marijuana plants, or belonging to a group such as the Ku Klux Klan. As umpire union spokesman Lamell McMorris said, “To try to link our umpires to the Ku Klux Klan is highly offensive. It is essentially defaming the umpires in their communities by conducting a very strange and poorly executed investigation. It resembles a kind of secret police in some kind of despotic nation.”60 MLB had asked the umpires’ union to allow the league the right to conduct financial background checks on each of its umpires, but the union wouldn’t allow it.
The bad apple that was Tim Donaghy somehow slipped through this exact sort of intense scrutiny for 13 years. The amazing thing about Donaghy is that he got roped into this gambling scandal in exactly the manner former Mafia member Michael Franzese described as possible. Donaghy ran up a gambling debt he couldn’t pay. To make good, he started providing inside information on games (only some of which he officiated) so both he and the Mafia boys he was indebted to could profit immensely. What this little group didn’t realize was that the FBI was listening.
What is extremely interesting in Donaghy’s case is the fact that for a supposed “addicted gambler,” Donaghy never once placed a bet himself. He only provided inside information to first Jack Concannon, who was never arrested by the FBI for his association with Donaghy, and later to former high school chums James Battista and Thomas Martino. While the others may have been acting as beards for Donaghy, the FBI did not prosecute Donaghy and his cohorts for their actions.
What the FBI did arrest Donaghy for was providing this inside information to gamblers on about 30 to 40 NBA games a season since 2003. This included over 100 games that Donaghy officiated. A large majority of those games were actually bet on by Concannon, not Battista and Martino who were the two arrested along with Donaghy. Why and how Concannon avoided this trouble remains a mystery.
What was this precious inside information Donaghy relayed to his associates? Some of it included details on which crews would be officiating certain games (which was not known outside the league’s inner circle), how those officials tended to interact with the players, and up-to-the-minute player injury status. If Donaghy’s information proved to be accurate, he collected $2,000 to $5,000 per game. If the bet didn’t cover, he lost nothing (because he had not made a bet). Amazingly, even with wagering on games Donaghy was not directly involved in, his group managed a reported 80 percent success rate, something a career gambler would kill for, considering that even the top-level professional sports gamblers struggle to win 60 percent of their wagers.
