The NBA Ref and the Mob

Both the NFL and NBA are sporting black eyes thanks to problems generated by their own members. The NFL is going to have to deal with a star quarterback who apparently enjoys staging pit bull fights and executing underperforming dogs, and now the NBA has a referee who was apparently on the take from the mob and may have been involved in game-fixing:

THE FBI is investigating an NBA referee who allegedly was betting on basketball games - including ones he was officiating during the past two seasons - as part of an organized-crime probe in the Big Apple, The Post has learned.

The investigation, which began more than a year ago, is zeroing in on blockbuster allegations that the referee was making calls that affected the point spread to guarantee that he - and the hoods who had their hooks in him - cashed in on large bets.

Federal agents are set to arrest the referee and a cadre of mobsters and their associates who lined their pockets, sources said.

"These are dangerous people [the referee] was involved with," a source said.

One source close to the probe counted the number of games on which the ref and his wiseguy buddies scored windfalls in the "double digits."

The NBA was already dealing with the thuggish behavior of some of their players and fans (remember what happened during the All-Star game in Las Vegas) and they certainly don't need a ref shaving points to win bets.