Anucha Browne Sanders had scored her dream job as a top executive for the Knicks complete with hefty bonuses, trips with the team and time on the court only to see it turn nightmarish when Isiah Thomas took over, a federal jury heard yesterday.
Within weeks of joining the Knicks, [Thomas] was cursing at Browne Sanders, said lawyer Anne Vladeck, who is representing the former executive in her sexual-harassment case against the basketball teams coach and general manager in Manhattan federal court. Within months he had called her a b—-, a f— b—- and ho.
The hostility began when Thomas joined the team in November 2003 and continued to mount over the next year until his behavior took a surprising turn at a Christmas party in December 2004, the lawyer said in her opening statements.
Thomas hugged [Browne Sanders] tightly and said he had figured out why he had so many problems with her, that they were so alike their relationship was like love and basketball, said Vladeck.
She told him he was out of his mind. After several more unwanted encounters, repeated complaints to her boss and a last-minute scramble to save her job by lodging a sexual harassment complaint, Sanders was fired in 2006 after five years with the team.
The Garden fired her for complaining about Isiah Thomas, said Vladeck.
Jurors heard a very different story from lawyers for Thomas and Madison Square Garden, who claimed Sanders was spoiled under the old regime that had allowed her to fly on the team plane, stay in the same hotels, attend practice and shoot hoops with the stars.
Thomas made changes regarding some very basic things, lawyer Kathleen Bogas said. These were his rules that he had a right to make.
Sanders decided to lash out [and] played the sexual-harassment card, said Bogas, denying that Thomas ever cursed at the former team executive or made sexual overtures.
He is nothing other than a total gentleman, Bogas said.
MSG lawyer Ronald Green said Sanders alienated herself from Thomas and team star Stephon Marbury and was fired after a series of performance failures and an attempt to tamper with witnesses in an internal investigation into her sexual-harassment complaints.