If you follow any sports news, you know that the FBI is investigating NBA referee Tim Donaghy for allegedly betting on games he officiated during the last two seasons.

Now there is news that authorities are examining whether the referee made calls to affect the point spread because he had a gambling problem and was approached by low-level mob associates through an acquaintance, a official said.

We may never know the whole truth, but someone like that would make it easy for organized crime or gambling to approach and have them referee a game in their favor, to cover a particular bet or points spread.

Not only would you threaten their career by exposing them, but with all the big money involved in gambling I wouldn’t be surprised if they used other, personal threats too.

There are all kinds of rumors and news floating out there right now about this, like:

• He’s now receiving death threats and his family wants him in the witness-protection program.
• They think he will be killed if he goes to prison, or even if he doesn’t, just because he’s probably talking, cooperating, and that’s ratting on the mob.
• Other sources say that Donaghy will be naming other supposedly crooked individuals affiliated with the NBA.
• According to this article, the NBA had a private investigator digging into Donaghy’s gambling habit more than a year ago but let him keep his job.
• Point spreads changed to much right before game time.
• Did Donaghy and crew fix Game 3 of the epic Suns/Spurs series?

Watch this YouTube Video and you can see this persons review of the officiating.

Hard to determine the truth right now, but this is yet another black mark on the NBA. They are already losing audience ratings.
Clearly, this will not end well for Donaghy. David Stern is supposed to address this publicly tomorrow. So we will watch the saga continues.