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How eager is the NBA to sweep the Tim Donaghy book and allegations as far under the rug as possible? The league office apparently passed on fining Rasheed Wallace for his comments on the book because they didn’t want to call more attention to it. That’s doesn’t mean they don’t want Wallace to shuddy, however. From the Boston Herald:

Bad news for the NBA. Rasheed Wallace is getting the Tim Donaghy book. “I want to check it out and see what’s there,” Wallace said last night.

Wallace already has been fined once for criticizing referees this season ($30,000), and as reported in Tuesday’s Herald, he lucked out on another occasion when the league didn’t want to bring more attention to the claims of Donaghy, the former official convicted of gambling. Celts GM Danny Ainge passed on word to Wallace from the NBA that he should watch his critical statements, but the forward won’t bow to the request.

“Either way they’re going to get me,” Wallace said. “If I don’t say nothing I’m going to get fined, and if I say something I’m going to get fined. So I might as well say something about what’s on my mind, what I want to say. They’re going to hit me up either way. I’ve been through that before in Portland. When I wasn’t talking to the media they were fining me. But then when I did talk to the media they didn’t like what I had to say, so they fined me some more. So I was like, ‘Well, (expletive), if you’re going to fine me I might as well say what the hell I want to say.’ ”

When it was suggested he could offer a “no comment” to questions about officiating, Wallace said, “Yeah, I could do that, but I think I have to be honest when I’m asked a question. And what happened to freedom of speech? You know, I say what’s on my mind, speaking my freedom, and I get fined for it. It’s a catch-22 with that (expletive), man.

“See, they think they can control people with money. Everybody don’t live like that. That’s how they live up there in that office. They think, ‘Oh, I’m going to hit him in the pocket. That’s where it will hurt.’ No, it don’t hurt me. I didn’t have it growing up, so, I mean, either way it don’t hurt me. As long as my family’s cool, I’m cool. It ain’t hurting my family. I make sure of that.”

Could someone arrange for Rasheed to record the Donaghy book for a book on tape release? And could they get Rasheed to drop in his own comments every so often during the recording? Because, if so, I would buy that. Several times. Hand it out as gifts and what not.

Remember him? The referee who bet on NBA games? Well, his book is coming out Friday.

From a release sent to Sportsfrog.com

The Book The NBA Doesn’t Want You To Read is Finally Going to Be Read

Tim Donaghy’s memoir on his life as a former NBA referee and his basketball gambling has undergone a title change and a new publisher with the VTi-Group, a traditional and online media company based in Tampa Bay.

The book, now titled “Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal That Rocked the NBA” is set to be pre-released to select outlets on Friday, December 4^th and will be available in book stores nationwide for Christmas.

Tim Donaghy was interviewed by 60 Minutes for an episode that will air this Sunday the 6^th.  The interview and the book will finally answer many of the questions about his gambling, the NBA games that were affected and the involvement with the New York Mafia.

For questions for further information please contact the VTi-Group at info@vti-group.com.

…he’s doing it twice. From si.com:

According to Hillsborough County jail records, Donaghy was being held without bond Tuesday for a federal rule violation. Details were not available….Donaghy was moved to a halfway house this year after serving part his sentence in a federal prison camp. He was scheduled for release in October.

Memo to Tim Donaghy (belatedly): the rules laid down that govern release from prison when it comes to the feds are not to be fucked with. Just sayin’. And, while we’re here, to the Grey Goose guzzling in public Mike Vick, um, take heed. The conditions of your probation are NOT be be fucked with either. Look and learn.