Road to redemption

Tim Donaghy is an addict and a traitor to his profession. He disgraced himself, his family, Villanova and the NBA, and he had to tell his father all of that before anyone else did.

On Father's Day of 2007, he made the call. Instantly, his father, Gerry, could tell there was something amiss with Tim. He sounded nervous and distracted and fumbled around with his words.

Tim called to admit something a son would never want to tell his father. He was about to confess that he had a gambling addiction and was probably going to jail for it. 

But that was only half the story, and it was the second part of his confession that made the call even tougher for Tim. While refereeing in the NBA, Tim had gambled on games he officiated.

As a father, Gerry would be hurt enough, but it was their other connection that had Tim worried. His father was a basketball referee, too.

"It was harder to tell him than my wife because of everything that my father had built over the years in the referee fraternity," Tim says.

How would a father, whom  he respected so much, deal with the fact that his son had tarnished everything he stood for?

He wasn't sure, but telling him was the first step on what has been a long path to redemption, and he needed his father by his side.

"One thing that I would always tell him is that you can't change the past," says Father Rob Hagan, a classmate of Tim's at both Cardinal O'Hara High School and Villanova, who has become a close family friend. "What is important is how you respond and move forward."

As he prepared to move forward, Tim remembered what his father stood for. He describes him as the "standard of integrity." Gerry was an official for 34 years, 29 of which came at the college level. He worked four Final Fours.

"Gerry is a respected father and a respected referee," Father Rob says. "As a family and a community, he was looked up to."

One of those who had looked up to him was Tim. Since the age of sevem, Tim had been exposed to the world of basketball watching his father officiate games. As his father officiated, Tim sat in the stands and watched his every move. It was a chance for a son to bond with his father, and the first step toward following in his footsteps.

"He enjoyed it," Gerry says. "He sat in the stands, and we'd talk about it on the way home. He was really interested in basketball in those days."

That interest never waned. On recommendation from his mother, Tim pursued a job as a basketball referee after graduating from Villanova in 1989. By 1994, he had reached the summit: he was an NBA referee.

In the 13 years between reaching the NBA and placing that call to his father, Tim developed a gambling addiction. In 1998 he bet $20 a hole in golf with a friend he knew from his rival high school. Just a few months later, he was winning or losing $10,000 regularly in cards. By 2002, he moved on to sports gambling. A year later it was NBA games; during the 2005-'06 season, he started gambling on games he officiated. In 2007, he was caught and faced federal charges.