Here's how it went down: The referee was given $1,000 in advance. The rest would come after the Lakers lost an important game. The ref said he could do it by making certain players foul out at key times.
But the ref's plans for that game misfired. The mobster who had arranged for all of this lost a lot of money and was "screaming mad" at their next meeting. The ref was penitent. Fixing a game was hard work in front of 10,000 fans, he said. He "begged for another chance" and got one, this time with only $500 in advance. He came through. Boston's one-point victory over Washington on Nov. 11 was no accident. Neither was a loss by the Knicks later in the year in a game in which the referee had to call 46 fouls on New York in order to fulfill his end of the bargain.
How do I know these details? Because they took place during the 1950-51 NBA season and are readily available in the New York Times archives and elsewhere. The referee was Sol Levy.
Last week, a dour NBA commissioner David Stern faced the media and said the accusations of a betting scandal against referee Tim Donaghy is "the worst situation that I have ever experienced either as a fan of the NBA, a lawyer for the NBA or a commissioner of the NBA."
It is not, however, a new scandal to professional sports, or even to the NBA. As long as people have been interested in the outcome of games, some people have been working hard to rig those games to make money. The difference between Donaghy and Sol Levy, however, is that Levy's scandal came at a time when the NBA was a bit player on a sports scene not nearly as rabid as it is today. And his acts were a bit part in a much larger scandal that involved point-shaving by players at the one level of basketball people cared about — college.
The other difference is modern professional sports is joined at the hip with local and state governments. Few teams, even on the minor-league level, exist today without a stadium or arena made possible by at least some taxpayer funds. The payback — at least the one gullible politicians believe — is that the teams will lend the prestige and sophistication necessary for economic development and national attention. If it all came crashing down, more than just athletes and hot dog vendors would find themselves hurting.
Fifteen years ago, when my title was "sports business reporter," I met Dan Moldea, an author who had written a book about gambling, organized crime and professional football. He said he had evidence that 70 NFL games had been fixed and that investigations had been killed by an unholy alliance between NFL security and federal officials. He was brash. I wasn't sure what to make of his claims. Now, I wonder again.
Back in 1951, Judge Saul S. Streit went on a bit of rant as he pronounced sentences on some of the college players involved in the scandal. According to the Times, he said, "The exposure before me is only the lifting of the curtain for a small glimpse of intercollegiate football and basketball, fired by commercialism and determination to win at all costs. I find that it has come to pass that college fame depends less and less on education as a center of learning and more and more on the prominence of its football or basketball teams."
"Commercialism," and "over-emphasis" on sports "are rampant throughout the country."
This was in 1951, remember; before ESPN, the Internet, TiVo and, certainly not least, the proliferation of legal gambling that now covers all but two states. It's odd for the nation to think it can dot the land with casinos and expect greater purity in sport.
Sol Levy was convicted of rigging three NBA games and sentenced to an indeterminate term at a penitentiary. But he was allowed to remain free on bail pending an appeal. That appeal succeeded. His sentence was overturned because, the court said, the law in question "does not apply to a referee in professional games or sports."
The New York Legislature passed a law closing that loophole.
It will be interesting to see not only how the modern NBA handles its current scandal, but how it and all other sports leagues can assure fans that omnipresent corrupting influences can't penetrate the outcome of games in a nation obsessed with both gambling and sports.
Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com