Isiah’s Wife Defends Her Man

Lynn Thomas stood next to her husband Isiah Thomas on Saturday looking like someone tired of going through hell.

Lynn Thomas stood next to her husband Isiah Thomas on Saturday looking like someone tired of going through hell.

It has been 22 months since Anucha Browne Saunders first launched her allegations of sexual harassment against Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden and about a month since a jury awarded her $11.6 million after an explosive trial where the Knicks head coach and president was portrayed as someone who condones disparaging black women.

Throughout these many months, Lynn Thomas stood by her college sweetheart and husband of more than 20 years, a stand made mostly in silence. On Saturday, she wanted to have her say.

“I don’t normally address the media,” she told a gathering of reporters and interested onlookers at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in Harlem. “But I felt it was very, very important in this issue to make a stand.

“This has been a hard, hard time for our family. But we’re survivors. Like my husband said we’ve been together for close to 30 years. We have two kids that we’re raising and I just wanted you all to know that if my husband had said those things there is no way I would be with him for that long.”

Lynn Thomas made her comments during a press conference called by Sharpton to announce the National Action Network was suspending a planned protest of the Knicks home opener Sunday at the Garden.

Sharpton had threatened to organize a protest after a video tape released during the trail showed Thomas saying he made a distinction between a black man calling a black woman “bitch” and white man doing the same. Sharpton initially wanted Isiah Thomas to apologize. I wrote a column saying Thomas should be fired based on those comments alone. At the very least Thomas had some explaining to do.

So while the Knicks were losing their season opener at Cleveland Friday night, Lynn Thomas was meeting with Sharpton and Tamika Mallory, the national director of NAN’s Decency Initiative. Together they viewed a longer portion of the deposition than what was shown at the trial. Thomas had maintained the portions of the deposition shown in court were “spliced” and a misrepresentation of what was actually said. Sharpton now agrees.

“Clearly in this tape he says it’s unacceptable,” Sharpton said. “He said that it’s inappropriate and that he would not support it. That’s not what was shown on television.”

It wasn’t clear what the Thomases appreciated more, Sharpton calling off the protest or simply taking the time to examine their side of the story. Though the Knicks basketball season in underway, it’s clear Isiah Thomas wants to refute the notion he condones black men calling black women “bitch.”

“I was raised by my mom, a single mom, Mary Thomas,” he said. “I wouldn’t let any man or woman call my mother that name. Nor would I let any man or woman speak to my wife that way. To all young black men out there and to all young white men, again, it’s never appropriate or acceptable to speak to any woman using the derogatory word.”

The audience composed mostly of supporters of NAN, applauded Thomas. “They lied on him,” one lady was overheard saying.

Contacted by telephone, one of the lawyers for Anucha Browne Sanders insisted the deposition shown in court was not a misrepresentation. “What we showed in the video was exactly what he said at the deposition,” Kevin Mintzer said. ‘His lawyers never objected to what we showed in court. There was no basis to object to what we showed in court. He may not like what he said, but that’s what he said. The allegation that it was spliced or made to look like he said something other than what he said is ridiculous.”

It was interesting the Thomases made their stand in Harlem, a stage where they could speak in the heart of the African-American community. The Thomases weren’t flanked by any of the suits from the Garden. There were no Knicks logos. This was their personal stand.

“It was important for me as a black woman to let you all know that I am married to this man,” Lynn Thomas said. “I love this man and if he spoke like that I would not be with him.”