LOL@Isiah Thomas- $10mill lawsuit+"white guy calling blk girl 'bitch' is worse".

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Former coach backs Knicks' accuser's claims

By THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, September 18th 2007, 3:29 PM

 
A former Knicks assistant coach took the witness stand today at the sex harassment trial that has rocked the NBA and backed up many of Anucha Browne Sanders claims against team boss Isiah Thomas.

Jeff Nix, who worked for the team for 15 years until he was fired last month, testified he was present when Thomas called her a "bitch" and "ho."

He recalled a 2004 meeting in which he quoted Thomas as telling Browne Sanders: "Don't forget, you f——— bitch, I'm the president of this f——— team."

Nix, who served under eight Knicks coaches including Thomas, said he also witnessed an incident that same year in which Thomas allegedly hugged Browne Sanders and professed his love for her.

He said Browne Sanders pulled away from Thomas at "the end of a hug" which occurred in a hall off the Garden floor and later told him: "I saw Anucha pushing away from Isiah," Nix testified.

He said he caught up to her a few minutes later when he says Browne Sanders told him: "You're not going to believe what (Thomas) just said.... He said I'm in love with you. It's like "Love and Basketball."

Browne Sanders, who as Knicks' vice president for marketing was one of the NBA's highest ranking female execs, is seeking $10 million in damages from team parent Madison Square Garden on her claim that she was fired because she accused Thomas of harassment.

Nix testified that he was personally drawn into the feud between Brown Sanders at one point.

In November 2005, he learned that Garden president Steve Mills had allegedly told Brown Sanders that Thomas would float rumors of she and Nix were having an affair if she pursued sexual harassment charges against the Garden.
"I was angry," Nix told jurors. "I said Steve Mills is a f---ing liar."

Browne Sanders' attorneys are expected to wrap up their case today by playing a video of the pre-trial deposition of Garden owner James Dolan.

Dolan could testify as soon as tomorrow about why he decided in December 2005 to fire Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.

On cross examination, Garden lawyer Ronald Green Green cast Nix as a close ally of former Knick president Scott Layden and suggested his testimony was influenced by his dislike of Thomas.

Nix denied suggestions that his appearance as a witness  for Brown Sanders was payback for his firing and the demotion that preceded that.

He was making $425,000 a year as an assistant general manager until Thomas told him in October 2004 that he changing his title to director of scouting and knocking down his salary $250,000 per year.

Nix said he didn't view the move as a demotion because it would allow him to work from his home in South Bend, Indiana where he'd once served as an assistant basketball coach for the University of Notre Dame.

"I could live very comfortably on $250,000 a year," he told Garden attorney Ronald Green.

Nix said he's known Browne Sanders since her days as a basketball player for Northwestern University in the mid-1980s. They reunited when she joined the Knicks in 2000.

He said the team decided against picking up the option year of his three-year contract and he was let go on Aug. 31.


------------------------------------


Isiah explains double standard on slurs in Garden trial

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, September 18th 2007, 4:00 AM
       
 In his video deposition, Knicks' coach Isiah Thomas says: 'A white male calling a black female a bitch is highly offensive. That would have violated my code of conduct.'

Isiah Thomas was in a courtroom yesterday - not on the basketball court - but he was still playing games.

Jurors heard the Knicks coach say he wouldn't stand for a white man calling a black woman a "bitch" - but wouldn't be as angry if the same words came from the mouth of a black man.

In a videotaped deposition played for the jury at fired Knicks exec Anucha Browne Sanders' sexual harassment trial, Thomas said he drew a distinction between whites and blacks when it came to the B-word.

Asked if he was bothered by a black man calling a black female "bitch," Thomas said: "Not as much. I'm sorry to say, I do make a distinction.

"A white male calling a black female a bitch is highly offensive," Thomas said. "That would have violated my code of conduct."

"Maybe I shouldn't go there. ... A white male calling a black female, that is wrong with me. I'm not taking that. I'm not accepting that. ... That's a problem for me."

Browne Sanders was not taking it from anyone, not Thomas or his star guard Stephon Marbury.

Both are fending off her claims they used the B-word to describe her, an African-American once among the NBA's highest-ranking female executives.

"Now, have I ever used curse words around her? Yes, but at her? No," Thomas said on the video, which was projected on a big screen in a packed courtroom in the second week of the widely publicized trial.

Browne Sanders filed a $10 million suit against Thomas and Knicks' parent Madison Square Garden after the Knicks fired her in December 2005.

Thomas was so stung by the pretrial testimony he gave earlier this year that he made a rare statement as he left court.

"Please don't mischaracterize the videotape shown in court today," he pleaded, insisting, "I don't think it's right for any man to call a woman a 'bitch.'"

Marbury has admitted calling Browne Sanders a bitch but denied calling her a "black bitch."

On the video, Thomas denied ever calling Browne Sanders "bitch" or "ho," as she claims.

"Please, no," he said when asked. "Come on."

He also denied directing the F-word at her or that he was ever interested in her romantically.

"I'm not attracted to her, no," Thomas said, flashing an uncomfortable smile.

The videotape was clearly the highlight of a day in which Garden lawyers had hoped to embarrass Browne Sanders on the witness stand.

They spent six hours grilling her about questionable tax deductions she took and a trail of e-mails she sent to her boss in the waning days of her five-year stint in the Garden's front office.

Dressed in a pink jacket with black slacks, the former Northwestern basketball star remained steady and confident, even as Thomas' lawyers bore in on her to recite the precise sentences used with the B-word.

At least two jurors nodded off during the lengthy cross-examination, but perked up when the tape of Thomas, in a suit jacket with an open collar, was played.

Thomas was asked if he would have disciplined Marbury if he had found out he called Browne Sanders a "black bitch." Thomas said, "As best I could, yes."

[GangstaBoogy]

This shiet is a soap opera. Knicks = new jailblazers.

[7even]

Is calling a woman a bitch now a 10 million offence? WTF?

[Fuck Your Existence]

wtf is the difference?...why is it worse because it was a white dude calling her a bitch?

[7even]

I also love how it's always the white man, never just non-black as in asian, hispanic, whatever...

[Smoke Break]

wtf is the difference?...why is it worse because it was a white dude calling her a bitch?

because some people are highly sensitive to the racial injustices they've never had to experience.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Is calling a woman a bitch now a 10 million offence? WTF?

He supposedly fired her because she revealed that he sexually harassed her.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

wtf is the difference?...why is it worse because it was a white dude calling her a bitch?

That never actually happens, he's just saying it woulda been worse if it were a white guy...LOL

[Fuck Your Existence]

wtf is the difference?...why is it worse because it was a white dude calling her a bitch?

That never actually happens, he's just saying it woulda been worse if it were a white guy...LOL

i gotta stop readin shit half way through....