Since David Stern announced that the NBA is cooperating with the federal investigation into the actions of Tim Donaghy, I thought it was pretty clear that we could safely drop the word "allegedly" from all speculation about what happened between Donaghy and the the illegal gamblers.

In Stern's words, one individual "violated a sacred trust," so they must have gotten some kind of confession from the disgraced former ref.

Tim Donaghy either resigned or was fired last week, whichever it is, doesn't matter. Stern's office has been in contact with the FBI since mid-June, so I can only assume Donaghy was called in, questioned by the NBA (Stern), and was forced to resign.

This morning's press conference doesn't clear things up very much, other than to confirm what we already know, however it did reveal one new bit of information. Stern said he wasn't sure if the wagering was done only on games Donaghy reffed himself, or if he also bet on other games. That opens another can of worms of course, and raises the question "How could Donaghy know on which other games to bet?" Is it possible there are more stones to look under? Donaghy was ranked third among refs in going over the spread. Who ranked ahead of him?

For now, it's all speculation, but it seems pretty safe to say this story is going to get worse. Uglier. Creepier.

These weren't the "legal" Vegas books that Donaghy was patronizing. The bookies he was/is connected with are affiliated with mobsters. Organized crime. The Boys. The Outfit.

And there is the real problem. Because all it takes is one bet with those guys, and they've got him by the balls. He then opens himself up to blackmail, and once that happens, the games he bet on becomes secondary. One The Boys have you, they have you for good. They could conceivably have called Donaghy a half hour before any game and told him how those games would end in relation to the spread or the over/under, regardless of whether Donaghy had a bet down or not.

What's Donaghy going to do, refuse?

On a side note, everyone is talking about calls that Donaghy made, and how they may have controlled the outcome of a game. That's not necessarily the only way Donaghy could control a game. Depending on how he bet, he could also control the spread by swallowing his whistle. He could keep the score low by not making calls, (if he'd bet the under for instance), and that's a much harder element to analyze statistically.

What's clear to me is that Tim Donaghy's actions have cast a pall of suspicion over the entire NBA. Is it possible that he's the only ref approached by The Boys? I doubt it. Perhaps he's the only one to fall into this chasm, but I have to believe that if they succeeded in buying Tim Donaghy, they must have tried to buy others. And even if nobody else got caught up in the web, why no whistle-blowers?(pardon the pun) Perhaps fear.

No matter where this rabbit hole leads, what's obvious is this. Once Tim Donaghy made his first over/under bet with criminal bookies, his presence on the court, and his whistle belonged to someone other than the league. His judgment was for the benefit of someone other than the paying fans who (to quote Jay McMullin) "thought it was all on the legit." Even in games he worked where there was no bet by him, and no orders from his new partners, the fact remains that he was bought and paid for, and everything gets tossed in the hopper of suspicion.

Whether it only happened a few times or a few dozen times doesn't matter, because the confidence of the fans, and the integrity of the league are shaken to their very foundation. People now start to wonder if what they've been seeing is real or not. And that can kill a league.

Where dirty refs are concerned, all it takes is once.