Ex-NBA Referee Tim Donaghy Joined Whites-Only Prison Gang In Jail

When Tim Donaghy was banished from the NBA his life took a violent turn as if he were caught in the middle of a Sons of Anarchy storyline. While serving 15 months for the big NBA gambling scandal, Donaghy was forced to join a whites only gang in order to survive the brutality of prison. Before finding protection, he was attacked by inmates in a beat down that forced him into surgery.

"I was a target. There was a guy who took a paint roller extension pole and blasted me in the knee a few times," Donaghy told TMZ. "I had to have surgery to relieve the pain when I got out of prison."

Donaghy says the prison was broken down into several racially allinged gangs. According to him, "Whites run together, blacks run together, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Italians. It was a matter of me surviving, and getting the f**k outta there."

A man who saved his life was a gang leader by the name of St Pete. While in prison Pete's gang gave him two options. One was being initiated with a prison tattoo crudly created from an ink pen. The other was shaving his head. He went with option number two. Donaghy says running with Pete saved his life.

"Thank God I teamed up with him," Donaghy says. "He saved my life. There's no doubt about it, I never would've survived if it weren't for St. Pete."

Since leaving prison he and Pete have stayed in touch. The two still talk on the phone and on one occasion they eat lunch together.

What do you think about Donaghy's story? Do you think the punishment fit the crime?