Tim Donaghy

“The big question on everyone's mind is, 'Did Tim Donaghy fix games?' The answer is no. I didn't need to fix them. I usually knew which team was going to win based on which referees had been assigned to the game, their personalities, and the relationships they had with the players and coaches of the teams involved.”

“Obviously I bet on games I officiated. I passed on information based on the meetings that the referees were having, and based on what the league office wanted us to call in playoff games. With that being said, I was able to win at a high percentage when we were betting on NBA games.”

“I lived with my parents until I was 27.”

“Any time that you have a sporting event with a Vegas line to it, there's always going to be somebody involved in organized crime trying to make a dollar off of it.”

“I was a target. There was a guy who took a paint roller extension pole and blasted me in the knee a few times. I had to have surgery to relieve the pain when I got out of prison.”

“If you're going to advance as a referee and make that $75,000 to $100,000 a year in the playoffs, you're going to give the league what they want. Because they are grading you.”

“In the future you're going to be able to go into a 7-Eleven and buy a ticket on a game, and people who don't use gambling as often as others do, like the people who go and buy lottery tickets, there's going to be more opportunity for people to do it. And with people casually gambling throughout the country, it's going to generate a lot of money.”

“On the golf course, playing cards, running to the casinos, betting on college and pro football, it keeps spilling over to the next step, the next step, the next step. I basically started giving people information that I was receiving in the locker room, injury reports.”

“I just loved the game of basketball growing up and my goal was to somehow be a part of it.”

“I got caught up with gambling at the golf course, the backroom card games at the casinos with buddies there, and eventually betting on sporting events. I think it became a situation where I got consumed by it and loved every minute of it.”

“I was in a unique position to predict the outcome of NBA games. Some of my picks included games I had been assigned to referee.”

“I had the opportunity to run up and down the court with the greatest athletes in the world.”

“I had a great job, living a great lifestyle... and just started doing the wrong things, getting a little bit cocky.”

“When you see an article it always has 'disgraced NBA referee.' It's embarrassing and it's never going to be okay. Unfortunately, I have to move forward and just make things different moving forward.”

“Some officials are afraid to blow the whistle with 20,000 people screaming and yelling at them. Some officials love to have the crowd go against them.”

“At some point, you're going to see the ability for a fan sitting in a seat to bet, swiping his credit card, whether James Harden is going to score ten 3-pointers or not that night.”

“I think there's a lot of successful referees to come out of the Philadelphia area because the basketball is so good.”

“We all have choices to make in life. And when we decide to go down that wrong road we'd be better off backing up and realizing that not only do you affect your life with some terrible choices, but the lives of people you love the most, and that's your family.”

“I had a great job and I lost it, but I'm doing great now, I have a great family, my daughters all live with me. Did I have a setback? Absolutely, but I don't look at it like a ruined my life.”

“I started stuffing wads of cash into my socks and underwear and quietly passed by the T.S.A. agents with a grin on my face and a sigh of relief.”