Isiah Thomas' Complaint

Madison Square Garden and its chairman, James L. Dolan, will have to cough up $11.6 million worth of ticket receipts to Anucha Browne Sanders, a senior marketing vice president for the New York Knicks, whom coach Isiah Thomas called a "ho" and a "bitch." The damages come out to $6 million for creating "hostile work environment" and another $2.6 million for firing Sanders "in retaliation" when she complained about her mistreatment. (The Garden owns the Knicks.) Dolan will have to pay $3 million personally for his part in the decision to can her.

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In December 2003, MSG hired Thomas, a basketball Hall of Famer from his years as an all-star with the Detroit Pistons, as president of basketball operations. Sanders was at that time "responsible for all the Knicks' business operations," and the second-ranking official in the team's front office. According to her legal complaint (see below and on the following seven pages; for the complete 20-page document click here) she was "one of the most accomplished and highly regarded women in professional sports." Browne Sanders' complaint states that the defendants "flouted the anti-discrimination laws to a degree rarely seen in the contemporary workplace" (Page 3). She paints an "animal house" picture of the Garden's executive suite, noting, for example, that Thomas would entice visiting team players to patronize New York "strip clubs" on Saturday nights and "get them intoxicated so they would not be prepared to play on Sunday" (Page 7). According to the complaint, Thomas screamed at Browne Sanders that she was a "f--king bitch" (Page 5) one day, then told her "I know you think I'm inappropriate, but I'm in love with you," another (Page 6).

In addition to the $11.6 million in punitive damages, the judge has yet to decide how much more to compensate Browne Sanders, a former college basketball star and a mother of three, for the year she spent seeking a new position. She is currently associate athletic director at the State University of New York at Buffalo, drawing a considerably lower salary. Although Thomas was found to have sexually harassed Browne Sanders, the jury, oddly, did not assess any punitive damages against the former court star.

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