FBI Informants: 1981-82 Knicks Shaved Points For Drug Dealer

Three members of the 1981-82 Knicks reportedly fixed games as a favor to their drug dealer, according to FBI documents.

The three unnamed Knicks reportedly started tipping off their cocaine dealer in January 1982. By March, the dealer had made seven five-figure bets against the team and won six of them, and informants believed the Knicks were placing bets on their own games.

Initially, an FBI source didn’t believe players were shaving points, but merely “extending a courtesy to their cocaine dealer, regarding inside player information,” the documents read.

But that opinion changed by late March as the dealer’s windfall grew. “Source now believes that the players are actively engaging in ‘shaving points’ and possibly even betting against themselves,” the feds state.

An informant told the feds that one of the players was deep in debt to a bookie, meaning it might have been more than just loyalty to a drug dealer.

The face of the Knicks at the time was guard Micheal Ray Richardson, who had himself a pretty nasty cocaine habit. When asked about the allegations by the New York Post, Richardson vehemently denied everything.

[ New York Post]

Photo: Marty Lederhandler/AP