White men better not call a black woman “bitch”around Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, but if black men do it well, that’s fair game.
“I’m sorry to say, I do make a distinction,” Thomas said in a stunning videotaped admission that was viewed by a Manhattan federal jury yesterday.
“A white man calling a black female (bitch), that is wrong with me. I am not accepting that. That’s a problem for me,” Thomas said
But asked if he’d have a problem with a black man calling a black woman “bitch,” Thomas said, “Not as much.”
The videotaped deposition, played by lawyers for fired Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders, is the first time jurors heard Thomas speak out at his sexual harassment trial that got underway last week.
Sanders has accused Thomas of spewing profanity for the first year they worked together, calling her “bitch,” “f—ing bitch,” and “ho,” and then suddenly changed tactics to profess his love.
The former vice president of marketing for the Knicks, Sanders claims she was fired from her job after complaining about Thomas and is seeking job reinstatement and $10 million.
The line of questioning came as Thomas recounted a 2005 phone conversation with Sanders, who was complaining to him that one of his employees “a white man” had raised his voice and acted inappropriately towards her.
Asked if it would violate the Garden’s code of conduct for one of his employees to have called the executive “bitch,” Thomas said, “A white man calling a black female a bitch is highly offensive to me. Screw this conduct thing.”
Asked on tape whether he’d ever directed profanity towards Sanders, Thomas said, “I have never cursed at Ms. Sanders. Now have I ever sworn or used curse words around her? I probably have.”
“Did you at any time use the word f—-?” a lawyer asked on the video.
“That could have come out, but not necessarily at her. I could have said, ‘I’ll f—-in handle it.’ I could have sworn. Never at her,” Thomas said.
“Did you ever refer to Ms. Sanders as a ‘ho?’ the lawyer asked.
“Please, no. Come on,” the coach replied.
Thomas also denied being attracted to Sanders, or ever saying that he was.
“I’m not attracted to her, no,” said Thomas.
The lawyer in the videotaped questioning zeroed in on a particular encounter at an open practice in October 2005, asking Thomas if he introduced Sanders to a guest at the Garden as being “easy on the eyes” and a distraction.
“No, I don’t think so,” an animated Thomas said.
Thomas is also accused of trying to hug and kiss Sanders at the open practice – and whining, “No love today?” when she rejected him.
The Knicks coach took a second major blow yesterday, as lawyers for Sanders called a season ticket holder to testify about seeing the Oct. 30, 2005 exchange that is at the center of the sensational sexual harassment lawsuit.
Robert Levy, a lawyer, said he was at the practice with his son and a pal when he spotted Thomas, Sanders and former Knicks player Micheal “Sugar” Ray Richardson.
Seated just feet away from the trio, Levy said he Thomas had his arm around Sanders and said, “She was doing a terrific job.”
“I heard Mr. Thomas say it was distracting at the time to work with someone who was so easy on the eyes. I heard her say he couldn’t get any love from her,” Levy testified.
“He had his hand on her shoulder. She seemed to be pulling away and looked a bit uncomfortable. She seemed to have an uncomfortable smile on her face, if you can call it a smile,” Levy told Sanders’ lawyer Kevin Mintzer.
Mintzer showed the jury a photo taken from across the court that night, zooming in to show Levy and his friend seated in the spectator seats, with Thomas standing nearby.
Levy said he then turned to his friend, who is also a lawyer, and said, “If I was a lawyer for the Knicks, I would be concerned about the comments we had just heard.”
Levy said the “physical relationship” and that Sanders “looked uncomfortable” raised red flags.
During cross-examination by Madison Square Garden attorney Ronald Green, Levy conceded, “He does strike me as a very personable man. I do think among athletes there’s a lot of physical contact.”
“I knew he was president of the Knicks. He appeared to be taking ownership of the situation as if he was her boss,” Levy said.