Shamed referee Tim Donaghy's book, Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA, has evidently been withdrawn from publication. If the excerpts posted on Deadspin are to be believed, the NBA must have had something to do with it. Either that or the allegations, which can't be proved of course, were considered too much of a risk for the publisher.
Some of what he says is just good officiating, under certain circumstances:
...when games got physically rough, we would huddle up and agree to tighten the game up. So we started calling fouls on guys who didn't really matter — "ticky-tack" or "touch" fouls where one player just touched another but didn't really impede his progress.
Other points are common knowledge for anyone that watches the league:
Star stoppers hurt the promotion of marquee players. Fans don't pay high prices to see players like Raja Bell — they pay to see superstars like Kobe Bryant score 40 points...The message was subtle but clear — call fouls against the star stopper because he's hurting the game.
...Ronnie Nunn told me that we could have made something up at the other end against Minnesota to even things out. He even got specific — maybe we should have considered calling a traveling violation on Kevin Garnett. Talk about the politics of the game! Of course the official statement from the league office will always read, "There is no such thing as a makeup call."
But other allegations are pretty damaging. He states that some refs had favorite players who got preferential treatment, while others got poor calls. Allen Iverson was on both ends of this treatment.
If [Steve] Javie was on the court when Iverson was playing, I would always bet on the other team to win or at least cover the spread....if Joe Crawford was on the court, I was pretty sure Iverson's team would win or at least cover the spread.
...I learned that [a certain ref] likes to keep games close, and that when a team gets down by double-digit points, he helps the players save face. He accomplishes this act of mercy by quietly, and frequently, blowing the whistle on the team that's having the better night....he also knew how to take subtle — and not so subtle — cues from the NBA front office and extend a playoff series or, worse yet, change the complexion of that series.
As history shows, Sacramento lost Game 6 in a wild come-from-behind thriller that saw the Lakers repeatedly sent to the foul line by the referees. For other NBA referees watching the game on television, it was a shameful performance by Bavetta's crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time.
...he talked about how important the game was to San Antonio and how meaningless it was to Denver, and that San Antonio was going to get the benefit of the calls that night. Armed with this inside information, I called Jack Concannon before the game and told him to bet the Spurs.
...if an obvious foul was committed right in front of me, I would call a travel or a three-second violation...the players would look at me with disbelief on their faces as if to say, "What the hell was that?"
There is one puzzling anecdote about Shaquille O'Neal wanting air let out of the game ball, and a ref complying; but Donaghy said the same ref favored Shaq's opponent, the Knicks, that night. Not sure what that one was supposed to mean.
And while some of the excerpts mention Joey Crawford, none add detail to his fued with Tim Duncan.
On its part, the NBA claims to be taking Donaghy's allegations seriously.
You can read all of the excerpts at Deadspin.