- April 16, 2024
Loading
Basketball officials dream of the perfect game. At each level of the sport, referees are in pursuit of a game in which every call is correct and every difficult play is judged flawlessly, with coaches and players competing at their best.
NBA referee Bob Delaney often speaks to groups about that elusive perfect game, telling them it is a dream he has yet to realize.
But all that changed June 19, 2009.
Delaney experienced a perfect evening at center court of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. He was honored before an audience of 250 spectators, including troopers from the New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island state police, local law enforcement officials, the FBI and other agents from the Office of Homeland Security. They were on hand for the official paperback launch by Delaney’s book, "Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob."
Written with sports journalist Dave Scheiber -- has enjoyed tremendous success since its initial release February 2008 in hardcover. In the book, Delaney, a 23-year NBA veteran referee, tells the story of his undercover years in the 1970s as a New Jersey State Trooper infiltrating the Bruno and Genovese crime families in Northern New Jersey.
It also explores how Delaney found inner peace through basketball following his nearly three years of undercover duty. The book became the publisher’s all-time leading seller soon after its release. Covert was named one of USA Today’s best books of 2008, and it inspired critical acclaim with starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, along with in-depth first person reports by CNN, CNN International, ESPN, TNT and scores of newspaper publications and radio outlets worldwide.
Delaney made appearances on the CBS Early Show, NPR, CNN, ESPN, Bloomberg TV and TNT, along with numerous additional media appearances, speeches and book signings at Barnes & Nobles and other bookstores across United States and Canada.