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It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that NBA ref Scott Foster probably was involved with dirty ref Tim Donaghy on some level. After all, Donaghy made 134 calls to Foster that happened just before, and after, games that Donaghy allegedly bet on. And even worse, Donaghy made more phone calls to Foster over a six-month time period than he did to his own bookie (134 to 126).While the NBA is denying that Foster had anything to do with Donaghy, that seems to be wishful thinking on their part.
According to RJ Bell at Pregame.com, games Foster reffed caused some pretty big movement in the gambling world.
During the 2006-07 period under investigation, seven games refereed by Scott Foster had lopsided enough betting on one team to move the point spread by at least 2 points; those seven teams were undefeated against Vegas – meaning that the big-money gamblers won a 7 of 7 times on Foster's games; the odds of that happening randomly are less than 1%.Lines can shift in sports betting if specific games are heavily bet on. That's so Vegas doesn't lose dramatically in the end. But when lines shift, and Vegas still loses all those games, something is likely very wrong. And that's exactly what happened with Foster's games.
Statistics alone cannot convict, but it's certainly noteworthy that seven times in Foster's games one team was bet extremely heavily, and all seven times that team won," said RJ Bell of Pregame.com.
Two of those seven games stand out:
On January 19, 2007 the Kings opened as a 1.5 favorites at Boston; betting on Sacramento moved the line to -4.5. Kings won by 5, shooting 25 free throws, versus only 14 free throws for the home team Celtics. On March 20, 2007 the Nuggets opened as 2.5 point underdogs at New Jersey. Denver was bet so heavily, they closed as 1 point favorites. Denver won by 4, shooting 32 free throws versus only 22 for the home team Nets.
Of course, all this evidence is circumstantial, and wouldn't ever hold up in court. But it's starting look more and more like Foster was in cahoots with Donaghy. After all, Foster being perfect in big games, combined with his phone conversations with Donaghy, doesn't look very good.
You have to think that the more dirt that piles up on Foster will eventually result in him being dragged in by authorities to answer some questions.
And I'm sure David Stern is thrilled.
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