Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison yesterday for gambling on NBA games.  The sentence is no surprise, despite the fact that Donaghy cooperated with government officials throughout the entire process.  Two other defendants involved both got at least one year in prison for their roles in aiding Donaghy.

“In deciding her sentence for Donaghy, U.S. District Judge Carol Amon assessed the extent to which Donaghy actively ‘chose’ to commit crimes,” reported SI.com.  The main defense from Donaghy’s attorneys was that his addiction to gambling impaired his judgement.  They said that he did not willingly bet on games that he was involved in, the equivalent of pleading temporary insanity in a murder trial.

In the end, the severity of the crime won out.  The NBA insisted that this sentence, along with the many new practices they have put in place for hiring and training officials will severely cut down the likelihood of something like this happening again.  Only time will tell if this is the end of the NBA’s betting problems, but this was a giant step forward for the league.