Citing excerpts from Brian Tuohy’s upcoming “Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game Fixing and the FBI” , the New York Post’s Gary Buiso reports “coked-up Knicks players fixed games as a favor to their drug dealer — who bet big bucks against the anemic New York squad during the 1981-82 season,”. Unsurprisingly, neither Mike Newlin or Bill Cartwright were sought for comment.
“Source observed heavy betting by [redacted] toward the latter part of the season .?.?. on the Knicks to lose certain games. In each case, the Knicks did lose, or failed to cover the point spread,” the FBI file reads.
The names of the players and the dealer are redacted in the FBI documents, which The Post authenticated with the federal agency.
The Knicks were owned at the time by Gulf+Western, and led by guard Micheal Ray Richardson, who averaged almost 18 points per game despite a rumored cocaine addiction.
Richardson famously said, “The ship be sinking,” as the team fell to 33-49, finishing last in the Atlantic Division. He was banned for life from the NBA in 1986 for violating the NBA’s drug policy three times.
“Hell no!” Richardson, 58 and living in Texas, told The Post when asked about the point-shaving allegations. “We never did anything like that.”