NY Daily News said:Knicks President and basketball legend Isiah Thomas was at the center of a bombshell lawsuit last night after a senior female employee alleged she had been the target of harassment.
Anucha Browne Sanders, the team's former high-profile senior vice president of marketing, filed papers against the hoops great in Manhattan Federal Court yesterday - claiming Thomas called her a "b----" and asked her to have sex.
She said when she refused his advances, the 44-year-old married father replied: "What? I can't get any love today?"
Thomas' legal team immediately branded Browne Sanders an opportunist - charging her complaints followed a failed attempt to extort $6 million. And the lawyers charged she was using Hall of Famer Thomas' standing to aid her case.
"This lawsuit is a blatant attempt by Anucha Browne Sanders to get a large sum of money from Madison Square Garden by taking advantage of the celebrity status of our client," said Thomas' attorneys Peter Parcher and Sue Ellen Eisenberg.
"While still employed, she demanded from the Garden, as a condition of her departure, a payment of $6 million, which is more than 20 years of her salary."
http://www.knicksonline.com/getart.php?id=4333
New York Times said:A former high-level Knicks executive filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing Isiah Thomas, the team's president, of sexual harassment and discrimination, saying he had made unwanted advances, cursed her and barred players from working with her on community events.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, said that Thomas refused to stop his actions despite her protests and discomfort, and that her immediate supervisor, Steve Mills, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports, did nothing to intercede on her behalf.
Last Thursday, Browne Sanders was fired as the team's senior vice president for marketing and business operations after an in-house investigation by the Garden found her complaint to be "unsupported."
Browne Sanders, 43, said in a telephone interview yesterday that she had found her dream job with the Knicks, whom she joined in 2000. Now, she said: "I'm outraged at the termination. I feel they've destroyed a stellar sports career."
She named Thomas and the Garden as defendants in the lawsuit, which charges them with two counts of sex discrimination and two counts of retaliation. She is seeking reinstatement and unspecified damages.
http://www.knicksonline.com/getart.php?id=4327
Marvelleous.. this is exactly what the Knicks needed..