I knew that you, players, and coaches have been complaining for a reason over these BS calls and I always found it ridiculous that you were all fined and/or suspended, basically being told to shut up. I bet David Stern feels pretty stupid now that the truth came out and I think that he owes you guys a HUGE apology to say the least!

Starting the investigation off by interviewing these guys would not be a bad idea if the Commish is really serious. But he has to know that the mob is not going to relinquish their chokehold on the league and it\’s players easily. And this weekend the mob sent a clear message to the co-conspirators: Keep quiet or else we will come after you!

The situation with Tim Donaghy is the tip of the iceberg. If the Commish just takes the time to connect the dots then he will expose a wide range of players who are on the take. It\’s amazing that his Chief of Security (an ex-FBI agent) wasn\’t able to see this one coming. Oh well, I guess he and the Commish were too busy policing the Black NBA players\’ pre- and post-game jewelry and attire to notice that a significant number of those players and a considerable percentage of the league\’s white referees are involved in a major, league-wide point shaving conspiracy.

And more often than not, when the Commish connects all of the dots he will undoubtedly notice that the common thread is the players\’ contact with the Gambino family and other Chicago gamblers by playing, growing up, or living in the Windy City.

The West Coast summer league scuttle-butt is thick with rumors about major Eastern Conference All-Stars who are knee deep in this gambling scandal. Chief among these high profile point-shavers who David Stern knowingly allows to either coach, play, or participate in the ownership of a franchise in the NBA are:

A) Dwayne Wade (Rumor has it that he took payoffs at Marquette just to make ends meet so that he could feed his wife and baby at the time. And know D Wade always has the ball in his hands at the end of games and he always seems to get the calls. This is the perfect recipe for point shaving!);
B) Chris Webber (Witness his famous time out call during the NCAA finals and his proven involvement with a Detroit gambler during high school and college);
C) Jalen Rose (He did all the things that Chris did except call the bone head time out,. Plus he\’s from Chicago and is rumored to have gotten involved with gambling and the Gambino\’s back in high school);
D) Isaiah Thomas (Long time addicted poker player, rumor has it that Isaiah, a native Chicagoan, is the Gambino family\’s recruiter among NBA players, refs, and coaches);
E) Michael Jordan (Long time addicted poker player and golf gambler who often stiffed (Gambino family) mobsters on betting losses. Rumor has it that his dad may have been killed as a result. During the 1990s Mike had the opportunity to be the ultimate point shaver during the NBA Finals. Could it be?)
F) Keyon Dooling (Chicagoan who played with the Miami Heat during the time that the fix was in with Donaghy);
G) Quentin Richardson (Chicagoan and Dooling best friend who played with the Knicks during the time that the fix was in with Donaghy);
H) Reggie Theus (Ex-Chicago Bull and University of Las Vegas player, during the point-shaving, Jerry Tarkanian era, was long rumored to be in the Gambino\’s pocket during his Bulls career; nobody noticed because they were losers then);
I) Caron Butler (Ex-(?) Crip who came into contact with gamblers and point shaving during his adolsecence in Racine, Wisconsin. Later learned to hone his point-shaving talents at UConn(victs) in the NCAA. Later played for the Miami Heat during the time that the fix was in with Donaghy. Donaghy did a lot of Heat and Knicks games);
J) Juwan Howard (Chicagoan who played wit Jalen and Chris – he and Chris were the best of friends; he and Jalen knew each other from playing in high school and being on the take back then).

If the dish on the West Coast is correct, NBA security is already looking at some or all of these guys in what will become a major rush to exorcise the demons before next season. The list of players names that continually come up when you ask off the record about point shaving includes members just every franchise. And the list of referees may include as many as one-third of the current working force if the whispering campaign in Los Angeles can be believed. ABC/ESPN – many of their respective execs live in LA and are presumably privy to the same rumors that are swirling around the courts and locker rooms here – are already bristling at the impact of this scandal. As they say in TVland, stay tuned…

Why are these occurrences connected to the referee gambling scandal? Note the following pieces of evidence:

A) The referee in question was under the thumb of the Chicago based Gambino crime family;

B) A considerable percentage of the games that he worked over his 13-year career involved the Knicks, the Heat, or both (see Covers.com for proof of this fact);

C) Both Antoine Walker and Eddie Curry are from Chicago and may have mob ties independent of the referee\’s, e.g. they may have been mob guys to start with;

D) The home invasions that the players endured were about the mob taking back the spoils from the point-shaving that\’s been going on between these players and teams for years;

E) The last thing that mob wants to do is hurt these players because they will undoubtedly want to use them again later in future point-shaving schemes;

F) The referee in question worked a recent game between these teams where the Knicks pulled off an unlikely victory and \’surprisingly\’ beat the point spread. Miraculously the Knicks shot 39 free throws and the Heat shot only 6 in the whole game (see Covers.com);

G) Expect Dwayne Wade to wind up being involved in some way – maybe he better upgrade his home security system. D Wade is from Chicago, gets an awful lot of \’phantom calls\’ from the refs in general, and is in a great position to shave points because he gets a lot of calls and he usually has the ball in his hands at the end of games;

H) Isaiah Thomas, coach of the Knicks, is an addicted gambler who also has been a subject of whispering campaigns about potential mob ties. Witness his perpetual poker debts all over Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Vegas, not to mention his phantom throwaway pass on an in-bound play against the Celtics in 1987 (?). He literally handed the ball to Larry Bird to the amazement of all in attendance and the Pistons went on to lose. Many think Isaiah won big anyway because of the gambling payoff that he got after that season.

I) Dont forget that even the great Michael Jordan fell victim to the Chicago mob because of his addiction to poker and gambling on his less than average golf skills. Michael and his dad often lost bets at both pursuits and refused to pay off their debts until mobsters executed a contract on his father. After that, Mike belonged to the Chicago mob lock, stock, and (gun) barrel. In fact a whole lot of the seed capital for his sports apparel business and his partially NBA franchise ownership came from the Chicago mob. Mike is basically a front for \’Tony Soprano\’. As a result Mike had to give in to the gamblers who wanted him to throw a Championship series or two so that they could make big money. Instead, Mike ended up doing the next best thing; he decided to pretend to play pro baseball for two years instead. Even though, he initially said that he was retiring from the NBA to spend more time with his family. Yeah, right! He and Juanita were already on the outs by then because of all of the time and money that Mike was spending on his Caucasian and Asian mistresses.

Truth or crazy conspiracy? We\’ll see soon. Stay tuned for the upcoming home invasion of D Wade\’s crib. And he probably thought that he pulled Hoops and knocked her up all with his \’game\’. WRONG! The sent her to him like a two-bit ho so that they would have one more layer control over his career and his life. Yo, D Wade, you know they got pictures….