NBA Commissioner David Stern said he felt betrayed by the “rogue” referee embroiled in the sweeping gambling scandal and yesterday likened him to devious traitors who “turn on their country.”
“This is the most serious situation and the worst situation that I have ever experienced either as a fan of the NBA, a lawyer of the NBA or the commissioner of the NBA,” Stern said.
In his first spoken comments since The Post broke news of the scandal last Friday, Stern said that he believes disgraced hoops official Tim Donaghy will be the only National Basketball Association employee implicated in the debacle.
Federal investigators are probing Donaghy’s alleged betting on games he officiated and his dealings with known mobsters.
“On the basis of my understanding, it’s an isolated incident,” Stern said at a Manhattan press conference.
Stern admitted he was taken aback by the referee revelations.
“I’m surprised, but I think no more surprised than the head of the FBI, or the head of the CIA, that rogue employees turn on their country in criminal activity despite the best investigative procedures you can possibly imagine,” he said.
“This is not something that is anything other than an act of betrayal of what we know in sports as a sacred trust,” he added.
The federal criminal investigation encompasses the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, Stern said. During that time, Donaghy reffed 139 regular season games, eight playoff games and four preseason games, he said.
The FBI first contacted Stern on June 20 to discuss the probe into Donaghy, he said.
He said the NBA didn’t fire Donaghy – even though it wanted to – because the league feared it would influence the investigation. Donaghy quit July 9.
“His lawyer informed us that he’s contemplating a plea,” Stern said.
Donaghy, who is not expected to surrender to federal authorities in Brooklyn until next week at the earliest, stayed inside his Bradenton, Fla., house yesterday.
He peeked out late yesterday, and quickly scanned the street before closing the door.
Donaghy, who is expected to plead guilty to federal gambling charges and cooperate in the ongoing investigation, was the target of two telephone death threats to his house Sunday. Two of his gambling pals, identified as bookies, are also expected to be arrested.
The NBA had launched an investigation of its own into Donaghy in 2005, Stern said, when league officials learned about a lawsuit against him alleging “a pattern of public harassment” filed by his neighbors.
In the suit, the neighbors claimed he cursed at them, set their tractor on fire, and drove their golf cart into a ditch.
Donaghy denied the allegations, but in the course of that investigation, someone said he’d gambled at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City.
“All of our investigation came up negative” on those charges, Stern said.
Stern vowed that the NBA would initiate an inquiry into Donaghy’s conduct as a ref.
“We will have the opportunity to review Mr. Donaghy statistically, and by video,” he said.
With James Fanelli in Bradenton, Fla., and Stefanie Cohen and Fred Kerber in New York