Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul review: The dark secrets of the NBA

The third documentary from the Volume II of the Netflix Untold documentary series explores the NBA referee Tim Donaghy and the match-fixing scandal that sent shock waves across American sport

Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul

Story: in 2007 the NBA was rocked by allegations that one of its senior referees Tim Donaghy was involved in a match-fixing scandal that involved gangsters and other betting syndicates. The news came out after the FBI had secretly launched an investigation into referees in the NBA.

Review: The United States has a unique sporting bubble when compared to the rest of the world. The nation is home to some of the biggest sports teams in the world, in terms of revenue, from the NFL to the MLB and the NBA. But apart from basketball and the NBA, none of the other sports has a global appeal like football or tennis have around the world. In other words, basketball is a beloved sport that transcends geographical and political boundaries. So it should come as no surprise that match-fixing allegations in the NBA, the world’s most elite basketball league, are something that shocked the world.

Tim Donaghy may not be a well-known figure across the world, despite NBA’s global appeal, but in the US he became national news after the allegations. For those following the sport, it was news that completely caught them off-guard. Because Donaghy was a veteran in the profession was widely regarded as one of the best in the business. The FBI investigations that followed allegedly threatened to unravel a systemic rot from within the NBA that went all the way up to the very top, the NBA commissioner David Stern.

The documentary features interviews with several individuals including Donaghy himself, his associates, his wife, investigators, and the bookmakers. But the NBA refused to take part in the documentary. This is despite allegations that the NBA manipulated matches for better viewership and revenue. As one would imagine each of the interviewees had their own version of how things transpired. Even the FBI had their story to tell, but NBA’s refusal to cooperate with the filmmakers further fuels theories about their involvement in the fixing.

This is not the first time basketball in the US has come under scrutiny for ‘points shaving’ and fixing. The stars of the Arizona state basketball team in the 90s were accused of points shaving, and it was discussed in the 2021 documentary Bad Sport. Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul is about corruption on a much larger scale, with the eyes of the world upon them considering the magnitude of the scandal. The documentary subtly implies that the NBA was in fact covering up a much larger scandal.

Verdict: Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul is a well-produced and intriguing documentary on one of the most controversial periods of professional basketball in the United States. The lack of further insight into scandal and the NBA’s alleged involvement shackles it from being one of the best sports documentaries of the year.

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