By MARC BERMAN
This is one small piece to the Tim Donaghy puzzle but a piece.
Four years ago, Donaghy had an ugly incident with one of the Knicks beat writers at a Toronto airport – the first time I realized the referee was off. Greg Logan of Newsday left the Knicks beat last season but his tiff with Donaghy became sort of a running gag on press row. It is not so funny anymore, not after The Post’s exclusive bombshell about the FBI’s investigation into alleged point-shaving.
This incident occurred before the time period Donaghy is accused of betting on NBA games he refereed, before he became one of those sad characters in a Soprano’s episode, allegedly feeding inside info to the mob.
But this story underscores the angry demeanor now portrayed in reports, neighbors accusing Donaghy of stalking and setting fire to their lawn mower.
The Knicks had suffered a loss the previous night in Toronto.
After going through Customs the next morning at the airport, Logan was ahead of Donaghy in a crowded line passing through the X-ray machines at security.
Logan had a very heavy computer bag on his back and he was collecting the rest of his belongings off the table when Donaghy, who looked agitated by the wait, came rushing past him from behind. Logan says Donaghy intentionally banged into his computer bag and sent it spinning around to hang in front of him.
Logan yelled at Donaghy, “Excuse me.” Donaghy looked back and flipped Logan the bird.
Logan told all of us the story the next day and it became legend. Whenever Donaghy worked a Knicks game, we would always joke that Donaghy was giving Logan the evil eye.
No question Logan studied Donaghy’s demeanor on the court since that incident. After all, we bump into refs in the airports quite a bit and they couldn’t be nicer. That’s what made the Donaghy bird flip so unusual.
As Logan relayed the other day when the Donaghy news came out, “He often displayed the same short fuse and angry demeanor that he showed me that day in the airport. I’m obviously not the only one he offended. He never seemed to me like a guy who had the respect of players and coaches, and he used his anger to compensate.”
David Stern looked awful at yesterday’s press conference, looking like he’s concerned there’s another rogue ref out there.
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Just back from vacation, let me thank Stephon Marbury for filling in for me on the Knicks blog. The reaction to the Starbury blog was enormous because he wrote it so honestly. His bombshell that he will play in Italy in two years when his contract is up even rousted me out of my vacation to write up a news story.
Marbury did a great job. I wasn’t surprised. Writing a blog is a lot easier than hosting a TV show, interviewing guests like Kareem and Kobe for 30 minutes. He’ll be back on this site in some form.