Kenny Smith on Tim Donaghy

In the wake of Sunday’s 60 Minutes report on former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, here is what TNT analyst Kenny Smith told Sports Media Watch about Donaghy’s various claims during an interview on Thursday.

SMW: Tim Donaghy is going to be on 60 Minutes this Sunday, he’s got his book coming out. And you always hear about all these conspiracy theories. There was a report that someone heard that [Jimmy] Battista was going to say that 13 refs were involved. … Do you think that NBA games are, or have been compromised in a major way, outside of what we already know with Donaghy?

Kenny: I’ll tell you this. The referees are pretty much the only ones who can consistently do that. That’s number one. But it’s hard to believe a guy – I’m from a neighborhood where it’s hard to believe guys who get caught up in illegal activity, and get caught. Because a lot of guys, they say snitch to get less time or get time reduced. So you always have to take what a guy who’s in jail is saying with a grain of salt. Because a lot of people compromise their values to get there, and they’re definitely going to compromise them to get out.

But again, there’s only one person that can – the only people that can – say, like a game like today. Take a guy who’s not playing well … let’s say, if [Kevin] Garnett’s not playing well, Rasheed [Wallace] could come in and hit five threes. The competitive nature of other players sometimes dictates what the game does. So, you can foul a guy out, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to make the team win or lose. Because the guys are sitting on that bench going, ‘I can’t wait for my turn’. So the only way you could control it would be through the referees.

But I can’t believe a guy who would compromise himself to get in that position and compromise himself to get out. And now you don’t have any source of income, so the only way to do it is what?

SMW: Book.

Kenny: So how can I really believe you? I can believe what you do, but to make it sensationalized, you’ve got to bring other people in it. I can’t believe you.

SMW: Do you think there might be any credence at all to the stuff he says, where he accuses the league of trying to influence games – not just officials betting on games, isolated – but the league itself trying to influence series, make them longer?

Kenny: If that was the case, San Antonio would be terrible. Because they have one of the smallest markets in the league, and they’ve won the championship almost every other year. That is a team that honestly … you want to be like, but you don’t want to watch. So, it’s difficult to sell them. If that was the case, get the Spurs out of there.

So it’s hard to say that. Because they play so methodical and so executed and so precise, that doesn’t tend for free play outside the system. [Watching a play] There’s ball movement, boom, body movement, boom. That’s it. Great play, great rebounding position, no tip dunks. They’re going to be in every game.

SMW: And of course, you get San Antonio/Utah a couple of years ago.

Kenny: Players play. And at the end of the day, you’ve got to make the plays. I think that the networks root for certain teams, for sure. We root for them. ‘Oh, let’s get such and such, we’d get everybody watching.’ But we don’t have the influence. We root for them, but the league doesn’t care. My point is, the deal with the NBA is already done. TNT’s paid out a billion dollars, and ESPN a billion. It’s up to you all to make the game exciting. See you later. See what I mean? They already have the pocket money.

SMW: Locked up until 2016. Stern may not even be commissioner then.

Kenny: That’s my point. What is the purpose? 2016 is done. So, we’re just going to put the best product, and you all have to just figure out how to get San Antonio popular. We already got our check.

Full interviews with Smith, Ernie Johnson and Tim Kiely (on a range of topics) will be posted during the week.