The NBA had hired a private investigator over a year ago to investigate referee Tim Donaghy's gambling habits after suspicions arose. The investigator interviewed Donaghy's neighbors and friends, learning that he gambled regularly, including at a casino in Atlantic City. Despite this, the NBA allowed Donaghy to continue refereeing games throughout last season. Donaghy is expected to surrender this week on federal charges related to betting on NBA games, including some he officiated. While investigators have not found evidence he intentionally influenced games, they believe he leaked confidential information to gamblers. The case has raised questions about games Donaghy refereed.

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THE NBA SICCED a private investigator on dis-
graced referee Tim Donaghy more than a year
ago, but then let him work games all season long
anyway, friends and neighbors said yesterday.
Hoops honchos had the investi-
gator question neighbors and
friends of Donaghy about what
they knew about his gambling
habits — especially his penchant
for the Borgata in Atlantic City.
“[The private investigator]
asked, ‘Does he gamble?’ ” said
Kit Anstey, 60, a real estate agent
in West Chester, Pa. “I said,
‘Yes.’ ”
Anstey told the investigator —
who said she worked for a local
firm hired by the NBA — that
Donaghy bet on golf games,
neighborhood poker games and
at an Atlantic City casino.
The prober never asked Anstey
whether Donaghy bet on pro bas-
ketball games.
“It was about his gambling hab-
its,” said Anstey, who once
helped the ref buy a $500,000
home. “I never thought at the
time of what he’s being accused
of now. He had a wonderful life.
Why would he throw it all away?”
The investigator who contact-
ed Anstey 18 months ago was par-
ticularly interested in whether
Donaghy gambled at the Borgata
casino. Anstey said he did.
The NBA refused to comment
on the probe and said Commis-
sioner David Stern would speak
publicly this week.
A spokesman for Borgata not-
ed that there is no sports gam-
bling in New Jersey and said the
casino has no record of Donaghy
gambling there.
Donaghy, a 13-year NBA veter-
an, is expected to surrender in
Brooklyn Federal Court as early
as tomorrow to face federal gam-
bling charges, authorities said.
His lawyer, John Lauro, has re-
fused to comment on the case
since Donaghy’s name surfaced
last week.
Donaghy, 40, allegedly bet on
sports and NBA basketball
games, including some contests
that he officiated, federal authori-
ties said.
So far, investigators don’t have
any evidence that he threw
games or even shaved points to
favor teams that he bet on, two
law enforcement sources said yes-
terday.
But they do suspect he leaked
confidential information, includ-
ing which refs were slated to
work which games, to mobbed-
up gamblers.
That seemingly innocuous bit
of information could be worth
thousands of dollars to a bookie,
because some refs are known to
have a prickly relationship with
certain players.
Some zebras also have a track
record of calling more fouls,
which can inflate score lines.
The new revelations show the
NBA was far more suspicious of
Donaghy earlier than was previ-
ously known.
A former neighbor of Donaghy
said the private investigator con-
tacted him more than a year ago
with questions about his betting.
However, the neighbor, Pete
Mansueto, told her he couldn’t
speak out because he was suing
Donaghy over a string of
disputes.
He referred her to Anstey, who
had a falling out with Donaghy
over other issues.
“The NBA knew about his gam-
bling,” said Mansueto. “A lot of
people were talking about it.”
Even though the NBA appar-
ently knew about Donaghy’s gam-
bling ways, the league allowed
him to work games throughout
last season.
The league is now scrambling
to contain the damage from the
scandal, which has many fans
questioning the results of games
that Donaghy worked.
Federal investigators were
planning to wait to charge Don-
aghy, but were forced to switch
gears when his name became
public. Donaghy will likely be ar-
rested this week.
But some legal insiders ques-
tioned the strength of the case
against him, unless prosecutors
uncover evidence that he threw
games.
“If Pete Rose didn’t go to jail,
he shouldn’t go to jail, either,”
said Marvyn Kornberg, a crimi-
nal defense lawyer. “It’s no differ-
ent from any person who opens
the paper to get the daily [bet-
ting] line.” With Christina Boyle
dgoldiner@nydailynews.com
NBA HAD EYE ON REFNeighbors: Official called games
despite probe exposing bet habit
BY MIKE JACCARINO
in West Chester, Pa.,
and JOHN MARZULLI,
JIM RICH and DAVE GOLDINER
in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
NBA referee Tim
Donaghy gazes
from his Bradenton,
Fla., home yester-
day, days after
betting and game-
fixing allegations
against him came
to light. Photo by
Ted Mace
NBA Commis-
sioner David
Stern will
comment this
week about
accusations
against ex-ref
Tim Donaghy
(l.) Photo (l.) by
AP, photo (r.) by
Thomas Monas-
ter/Daily News
7mnydailynews.comDAILYNEWSMonday,July23,2007
By DAVID BIANCULLI
DAILY NEWS TV CRITIC
L
OS ANGELES — A week
into his new job as enter-
tainment president at Fox,
Kevin Reilly says he’s en-
tered a much different envi-
ronment than he did at NBC.
“The good news,” Reilly said of
Fox, “is that I’m not getting be-
hind the wheel feeling like the
wheels are about to come off. I’m
not replaying that scenario.”
Reilly was recently replaced at
NBC, where he struggled to get
the once-dominant network back
on track with a series of ratings-
challenged yet critically praised
dramas and reality shows.
He was replaced by Ben Silver-
man, executive producer of
“Ugly Betty” and “The Biggest
Loser.”
“No one’s really fired in Holly-
wood, are they?” Reilly joked of
his departure at NBC. “And no
show is ever really canceled.
Let’s just say…I wanted to spend
more time with my family —
which I did, for three days.”
Reilly expressed pride in
NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,”
which he championed tirelessly
there. He suggested, though, that
the network that once nurtured
“Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers” and
“Seinfeld” from low-rated shows
to hits may not have quite the
same institutional instincts.
“I personally had wished that
history was a little bit more fresh
on people’s mind,” Reilly said,
“and was a little bit more wired
into the current environment.”
Reilly admitted that coming to
a network when the fall schedule
was in place was “somewhat awk-
ward,” as it had been when he
joined NBC under similar circum-
stances — but that Fox now is dif-
ferent from NBC then.
Reilly praised the Fox slate,
which includes the traditional sit-
com “Back to You” with Kelsey
Grammer and Patricia Heaton as
TV news anchors in Pittsburgh.
One reporter challenged Gram-
mer’s decision to return to series
TV, pointing out many stars of
other hugely successful sitcoms,
like “Seinfeld” and “Friends,”
said after those shows were over
that they had done all they possi-
bly could in the sitcom form.
“In this case,” Grammer coun-
tered, referring to himself and
“Everybody Loves Ramond” star
Heaton, “you’re looking at peo-
ple who haven’t.”
Heaton said playing a TV news
anchor permitted her to indulge
her fascination with local anchor-
women across the country.
“You’ve got your local New
York anchors, the gals who really
could use a little wax [on the]
brows,” she said. “Then you get
all the way to the West Coast, and
some of them look like hookers.”
In other Fox news, the produc-
ers of “24” have retooled the first
episode for January and have
cast two-time Tony-winner Cher-
ry Jones (“The Heiress,”
“Doubt”) as the show’s first fe-
male U.S. President — following
in the footsteps of Geena Davis
in ABC’s “Commander in Chief.”
Chase lets finale
speak for itself
Don't look to "Sopranos" creator
David Chase for help with the cut-
to-black series finale last month.
“Here’s another clue for you all,”
Chase said, alluding to the Beatles’
“Glass Onion” with his own playful
variant. “The walrus was Paulie.”
Chase made the jokes at the
Television Critics Association
awards,
where “The
Sopranos"
won Outstand-
ing Achieve-
ment in
Drama and
the TCA
Heritage
award.
“I’m from
New Jersey.
It’s possible to be in a restaurant in
New Jersey and everything just
stops," he said later. "It’s not that
big of a deal.”
Other winners included NBC’s
“Friday Night Lights” starring Kyle
Chandler (Outstanding New Pro-
gram) and Michael C. Hall of Show-
time’s “Dexter” (Individual Achieve-
ment, Drama). Alec Baldwin won
Individual Achievement, Comedy, for
NBC’s “30 Rock,” NBC’s “The Office”
won for best comedy, and NBC’s
“Heroes” won Program of the Year.
— David Bianculli
Dot’s all
Asia Nitall-
ano won last
season’s
“Pussycat
Dolls Present:
The Search
for the Next
Doll” on the
CW, but she
won’t be part
of the group.”
CW Enter-
tainment president Dawn Ostroff
said Nitallano has “decided to do a
solo career” rather than become a
member of the group. The network
has already lined up a second
season of the Pussycat Dolls series,
only this time around it will be
looking for women to form a new
group that will be called Girlicious.
Meanwhile, “Beauty and the
Geek” will add a twist to its format,
with one more good-looking/nerd
team in which the guy is hot and the
girl is the geek. Actor Sam Horrigan
will be the male beauty, though
Ostroff said, “He may not act, but
he’s not playing an actor on this
show. He’s playing himself.”
— Cristina Kinon
By RICHARD HUFF
DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR
‘L
aguna Beach,” the MTV series that
launched the docu-soap craze in 2004,
is returning to the network — just not
in the same setting or with the same ti-
tle.
This time around, the show moves to New-
port Harbor, Calif., and be called “Newport Har-
bor: The Real Orange County.”
“It has been three years since the Stephen,
Lauren and Kristin love triangle drew viewers to
the real-life drama of Laguna Beach,” Tony
DiSanto, MTV’s executive vice president of se-
ries development and programming said in a
statement. “Now we are moving up the coast to
a new town with new faces and a new high
school, but with the same drama of dealing with
relationships, cliques, family and friends.”
The new show will launch Aug. 15 at 10:30
p.m. Starting today, fans can log onto
www.newportharbor.mtv.com to see video,
cast bios, photos and quizzes about Laguna
Beach.
“Laguna Beach,” with its stylized images
and dramatic storytelling process, changed
the reality-show concept when it launched
in 2004. It also helped launch the careers of
Lauren Conrad (“The Hills”), Kristin Caval-
lari (“Get This Party Started”) and Stephen
Colletti (“Veronica Mars”).
Like the original, “Newport Harbor” will
follow a group of high schoolers dealing
with life. For instance, among the cast is
Chrissy, a head-turning senior and the smart-
est girl in the group. There’s Grant, a junior,
who is the life of the party. And Chase is the
heartbreaker who has a way with the girls.
“The real O.C. is a beautiful backdrop to
this universal story,” DiSanto said, “and this
year we go back to the heart of the drama...
that wistful last year of school.”
rhuff@nydailynews.com
TELEVISIONINNER TUBE
TONIGHT
SPECIALS
ø 9:00 p.m. (ABC) “CMA Music
Festival: Country’s Night to
Rock.” For years now, the multi-
day, preparty buildup to the CMA
Awards has been edited into a
ASIA NITOLLANO
Fox chief likes his new cards
Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer do battle while tackling their desk jobs in “Back to You.”
‘Laguna’ lands
in new ‘Harbor’
From l., Grant, Taylor, Chase, Chrissy, Clay, Allie on “Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County”
KYLE CHANDLER
Monday,July23,2007DAILYNEWSnydailynews.com78