Whistleblower

Whistleblower

In 2007, NBA referee Tim Donaghy was arrested for betting on games he officiated. It was the biggest scandal in American sports history, but it quickly faded from the headlines. Why? Because everyone in this scandal has something to hide. This isn't a story about basketball - it's a story about money, and a conspiracy that spans far beyond one referee. Sports journalist Tim Livingston takes you inside his eight-year odyssey to find the truth at the heart of the scandal. This is Whistleblower.

Episodes

August 17, 2020 2 mins
“Whistleblower“ tells the story of the biggest scandal in American sports history. But it’s not a story about basketball; it’s a story about money – and how powerful people make problems… disappear. Coming August 27th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was caught betting on games that he officiated. It was the biggest scandal in American sports history, but according to Donaghy, he wasn't the one fixing games... it was the NBA. Journalist Tim Livingston sets out to find answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
September 3, 2020 40 mins
Host Tim Livingston heads to Florida for his first face-to-face interview with disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, but it’s Donaghy's co-conspirator, Tommy Martino, who reveals new information about the 13-year-old scandal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
September 10, 2020 33 mins
Two kids from Delco, Tim Donaghy and Tommy Martino. Our interviews continue with our main subjects and we dive deeper into Donaghy’s claims, attempting to separate the truth from the lies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
September 17, 2020 30 mins
Next stop, Philadelphia, specifically Delaware County, where the 2007 NBA betting scandal was hatched. “Delco”, as Delaware County is commonly known, is home to the Sixers, bookmakers, and Philly mobsters. Tim gets a first-hand account of the lifestyle and gambling culture and he must... choose wisely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
September 23, 2020 6 mins
In our first bonus segment, Sean Patrick Griffin adds another element to the NBA betting scandal — one that involves unregulated, overseas wagers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
September 24, 2020 47 mins
Tim and the team head up I-95 to New York for a meeting with John Lauro, Donaghy’s defense attorney, and to track down the illusive FBI agents who handled Donaghy's investigation. We learn that someone from high up may have been pulling the strings to undermine the investigation, even going as far to leak the story to the NY Post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
October 1, 2020 45 mins
After learning about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the leak of the original Donaghy story and Jimmy Battista's plea deal, the crew investigates the most controversial game in NBA history: Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
October 8, 2020 40 mins
We learn more about the role the NBA played behind the scenes influencing calls on the court, and about one owner's longtime war against the officials. But when that owner was given the opportunity to expose the system he spent years rebelling against, he backed down. He couldn’t, in the end, risk killing the Golden Goose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
October 15, 2020 31 mins
The crew finally connects with retired FBI agent Phil Scala, the supervisor of the FBI probe into Tim Donaghy and the head of the investigative unit focused on the Gambino crime family. Scala agrees to meet with Tim, but the team, and Donaghy, are skeptical the FBI legend will show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
October 22, 2020 33 mins
On the final day of the trip, the crew travels to a diner in Howard Beach, Queens, to meet with Scala, hoping that the former FBI agent will help unravel the mysteries of the NBA Betting Scandal, and the NBA as a whole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
October 29, 2020 36 mins
After an eight-year journey, Tim finally has answers, but there is more left to be uncovered. The team continues to dig deeper and turns the system inside out, hoping that basketball's future will learn from lessons of its past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
Two new Whistleblower bonus episodes are coming February 20th, presented ad-free by our friends at Underdog Fantasy. Take a second to go to UnderdogFantasy.com or download the Underdog Fantasy app. Make a deposit using the code WHISTLE and Underdog will match your first deposit up to a hundred dollars. Re-listen to Episode 1, "The Rogue Ref", and binge all of Season One ad-free, thanks to Underdog Fantasy. [Republish] Former NBA re...
Mark as Played
February 13, 2023 2 mins
Tim sits down with the ringleader of the NBA Betting Scandal, Jimmy Battista, to see how deep the fix really goes. Don't miss two new Whistleblower episodes, dropping Monday, 2/20. Sponsored by Underdog Fantasy (Code: WHISTLE). Download the Underdog Fantasy app or sign up at UnderdogFantasy.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
February 20, 2023 32 mins
Tim sits down with Jimmy Battista and Tommy Martino hoping to find out new information about the relationship between referees Tim Donaghy and Scott Foster. Presented ad-free by Underdog Fantasy (Code: WHISTLE). Download the Underdog Fantasy app or sign up at UnderdogFantasy.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
February 20, 2023 26 mins
After years of trying, Tim has finally made contact with the third conspirator in the NBA Betting Scandal: Jimmy "Baba" Battista. The only problem? Jimmy isn't exactly an open book. Presented ad-free by Underdog Fantasy (Code: WHISTLE). Download the Underdog Fantasy app or sign up at UnderdogFantasy.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    The Burden

    The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

    SmartLess

    "SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.