The Random House imprint Triumph Books has canceled a memoir by former NBA referee Tim Donaghy.
According to ESPN.com, “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA” would have launched in a few weeks, exploring the former referee’s NBA work and his 15-month imprisonment for wire fraud. Donaghy was convicted for working with a gambler while refereeing games for the NBA. In the article, Random House expressed “concerns over potential liability,” but Pat Berdan from Executive Prison Consultants defended the referee’s book.
Here’s more from the article: “‘Somehow, the NBA got wind of the project and let Random House know in a threatening-type correspondence that they would object to the publication of such a book and they threatened that they would sue if they did go ahead and do that,’ said Berdan, who didn’t see any letters from the NBA.”