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Sleaze play in Stephon Marbury's back seatBY THOMAS ZAMBITO and CORKY SIEMASZKODAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERSThursday, September 13th 2007, 9:16 AMKnicks star Stephon Marbury took the stand yesterday in the explosive $10 million sex harassment suit that's rocking the Garden and admitted luring an intern into his car for an alleged sexual encounter.Marbury did not explicitly say they had sex while parked outside a Manhattan strip joint, as fired Knicks exec Anucha Browne Sanders has claimed in her suit."We got together right across the street," the fidgety point guard testified during his half-hour on the stand in Manhattan Federal Court.Marbury made the admission after Browne Sanders, who claims the Knicks fired her in January 2006 when she threatened a suit, broke down while testifying for the first time in the bruising sex harassment trial.Browne Sanders wept as she described how the intern, a St. Johns University student, was subjected to a filthy come-on by Marbury's cousin Hassan Gonsalves. Browne Sanders has said the intern told her she later wound up in Marbury's car and the two had sex."Anucha, if it was anyone else I would have walked away," the intern said, according to Browne Sanders. "I felt like I had to."Browne Sanders added, "She basically did whatever he asked her to do. She considered it to be consensual because she agreed to get in the car."The woman, whose name is being withheld by the Daily News, declined to comment at her home.Dressed in a cream-colored plaid jacket with a red handkerchief sticking out of his breast pocket, Marbury avoided looking at Browne Sanders as he sat hunched over the microphone in a room packed with spectators.She remembered crying when she described to Garden officials what the intern had told her. She said the brass ignored her request to look into the complaint.Marbury said he did not know that the intern, who was at the unidentified strip club celebrating her birthday with friends, was drunk during their encounter in April 2005.Marbury also insisted he never heard Knicks coach Isiah Thomas call Browne Sanders a "black bitch" or "ho" as she testified earlier, saying it was "not his style."For his own part, Marbury said, "I didn't call her a black bitch. I called her a bitch."It happened, he said after she balked at giving him more freebie game tickets."She told me that this is not Phoenix or New Jersey, we're not doing things like that here," Marbury said, referring to his previous NBA teams.Afterward, as Marbury fled to a blue Rolls-Royce trailed by reporters, he called the trial a "tough situation" and refused to speculate on the possible outcome."It's not for me to judge," he said.Earlier, Browne Sanders, a 44-year-old former Northwestern University basketball star who is the Knicks' former marketing vice president, described how Gonsalves allegedly harassed the intern."You look good in those pants," Gonsalves allegedly said, according to Browne Sanders. "I bet that p---y looks good, too."Browne Sanders said that the intern told her about the sleazy incident and later admitted, "I didn't tell you everything." Then she related the story of her encounter with Marbury.The intern told her Marbury and Gonsalves were at the birthday celebration and that - over the objections of her friends - she accepted a ride back to St. John's from Gonsalves.When she climbed out of Gonsalves' vehicle, Marbury pulled up in his and said, "Are you getting in or not?" the ex-exec testified.Browne Sanders said she told Garden President Steve Mills about the encounter between Marbury and her subordinate and complained that she heard from others that Marbury had called her a "black bitch.""I want you to make it stop," Browne Sanders said she told Mills.Mills, Browne Sanders testified, warned her that if she didn't stay quiet, Thomas would start rumors she was having an affair with another MSG executive."Steve, is that a threat?" Browne Sanders, a married mother of three, said she told Mills. "Do I need to find a lawyer?"On cross-examination, Garden lawyer Ronald Green tried to paint Browne Sanders as angry that her bid for a $585,000 contract to market the Knicks and Rangers had been turned down. He accused her of trying to smear Thomas during a meeting with Garden human resources."Did you say that Isiah was all ego?" Green asked."No, I think we all know that," she replied, causing the courtroom to erupt with laughter.In earlier testimony, Browne Sanders said Thomas, a two-time NBA champ and Hall of Famer, was a foulmouthed bully who made her uncomfortable by telling her, "I'm in love with you" after beating her in a game of horse.....And the bitch he fucked:
I'm starting to believe that Marbury is even crazier than Artest, just less aggressive
Dude, the article on Fox Sports had a fuckin random ass quote from Starbury...---------------------------------------------------------"Yes, I called her a bitch," Marbury said. "I said a lot of different things . . . I said she doesn't run s- - -. . . . I may have said f- - - her. I didn't call her a black bitch."Allegations of rampant verbal abuse is central in Sanders' case against Thomas, who she claims started every sentence to her with the word "bitch."But Marbury jumped to his coach's defense, claiming he never heard Thomas curse at Sanders, saying it was "not his persona.""That's not his style," Marbury said.The hoops player then left the court grinning ear to ear and hopped into an elevator with a group of reporters, saying, "Man, money makes you do crazy things."Then the star paused and weirdly added, "I'm talking about that man who tried to jump off the thing for the cash."Jurors got a darker picture of Marbury at the start of testimony yesterday, when Sanders described his sexual exploits in his truck during her most emotional moment during two days on the witness stand.Weeping and sniffling, Sanders recalled how the distraught intern had told her, "I wouldn't have gotten in [the truck], but I felt like I had to.""When she got into the car, she basically did whatever he wanted her to do. They basically had sexual relations," said Sanders, dabbing her eyes as she revealed that the intern was dating Marbury's cousin, Gonsalves."She considered it consensual because she got in the car," Sanders said.Contradicting Marbury's claim that he'd picked up the intern outside the strip club, Sanders said the basketball star actually propositioned her at St. John's University in Queens after following her and his cousin there in his truck."I was stunned," Sanders said.Sanders said she immediately reported the incident to Knick officials, but they never questioned Marbury about the incident - a failure that the fired executive is using to bolster her case that the Garden failed to address sexual-harassment complaints.Sanders claims she was fired in December 2005 in retaliation for making numerous complaints about sexual harassment that she and other employees were forced to endure.Vice president of marketing since 2000, Sanders testified that Marbury always disliked her, refusing to participate in promotional events and demanding special privileges against team rules.Sanders said she learned Marbury was cursing her behind her back, calling her "black bitch," and she made additional complaints - only to get an ominous call from Knick president Steven Mills."Isiah Thomas is going to start a rumor about you having an affair with . . . another employee in the office," Mills allegedly told Sanders."Is that a threat?" Sanders recalled asking Mills, who answered, "That's not a threat."
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