Isiah Thomas is a bitch

[Tre]

What a prick.

[youandme]

what is up with this? seems like he is enjoying himself little bit too much

[Camel Jockey]

I actually like the guy, despite him running the Knicks into the ground as Scott Layden did before him..

Just has a swagger about him.. You know, Tre.. Your kind could do with more of people like Isiah.

[Dos Equis]

Judge denies defense motion to dismiss; calls part of case 'weak'
Associated Press

Updated: September 19, 2007, 3:35 PM ET

 Chris Broussard on Isiah Thomas' TrialNEW YORK -- A Madison Square Garden executive was ready to quit her high-salaried position -- and was nearly fired over her inability to handle work responsibilities -- in the months before she sued New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas for sexual harassment, a top MSG official testified Wednesday.

Steve Mills, MSG Sports president and CEO, was the first witness called as Thomas and MSG opened their defense in federal court against the charges made in a $10 million lawsuit by Anucha Browne Sanders.

Mills, who attended Princeton with Browne Sanders' sister Ruth, testified that he never heard a single complaint from the plaintiff about Thomas using profanity or making inappropriate sexual contact until a Dec. 15, 2005, e-mail.

By then, Mills testified, Browne Sanders had already approached him in tears to say she was overwhelmed by work and wanted to leave her position as vice president of marketing and business operations. In the meeting a month earlier in his office, Mills said, a weepy Browne Sanders "told me she's lost the confidence of the people she worked with, and she can't do this anymore. I agreed." Mills said he also agreed to keep her on the job while she looked for a position outside MSG.

Their conversation came three months after a disastrous financial forecast meeting where Browne Sanders could not answer questions posed by Garden chairman James Dolan, Mills said.

After that August 2005 meeting, MSG vice chairman Hank Ratner said, "We should fire her right now," Mills recalled.

Dolan, whose deposition in the case was played Tuesday by the plaintiff, stepped in and saved Browne Sanders' job, Mills said during 2{ hours of direct testimony. A smiling Thomas seemed buoyed by the testimony after four days of sitting through the plaintiff's case.

Browne Sanders, a married mother of three and former Northwestern basketball star, was hired by the Knicks in late 2000. She was fired in January 2006, and claimed the dismissal came after she complained to MSG management about her mistreatment.

Browne Sanders alleged that Thomas initially treated her with disdain, including a litany of profanity, before becoming inappropriately physical and encouraging her to take their relationship "off site."

But Mills said the only mention of the two going "off site" came from Browne Sanders, who wanted the Knicks coach to attend an overnight offseason meeting in Connecticut. And Mills said when Thomas was told not to hug Browne Sanders after a December 2005 incident, the basketball Hall of Famer replied, "OK, cool."

The Garden claims she was dismissed for a failure to "fulfill professional responsibilities," and Mills testified to a number of problems that occurred on her watch.

Prior to Mills' appearance, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Gerard Lynch said Browne Sanders' attorneys had presented a "weak case" that the Knicks coach was involved in the woman's firing -- one of the allegations made in her suit.

"Of all the claims in this case, this is the one that looks to be a stretch," Lynch said before he nonetheless denied a defense motion to dismiss that claim. He said it was an issue better left to the jury at this point.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3027046

[danielson]

I went to His Basketball camp as a little kid. He and Billy Sims were my heroes growing up around here. He turned into a bitch as far as the D is concerned when he complained about not landing a job with the Pistons after he retired. Joe Dumars hasn't done half bad though. Joe is all class, I have met him a few times and he is genuinely a nice guy.

[Tre]

Your kind could do with more of people like Isiah.

Absolutely not.  All he's done is fail upward. 

His comments about his use of the term 'bitch' are just flat out bullshit.  Of course he's used the word before, and based on his arrogant response to the charges, I *do* believe that he's used the term in the workplace.  But to say that it's worse for a White man to call a Black woman a 'bitch' than it is for a Black man to call a Black woman a 'bitch' is total crap. 

Personally, I consider the term 'bitch' genderless, but in a majority of places around the U.S., it's considered a derogatory term for a woman.

[Dos Equis]

 

Posted at 9:08 a.m., Tuesday, October 2, 2007

NBA: Jury awards $11.6 million in Knicks case

By Tom Hays
Associated Press

NEW YORK — A federal jury decided Madison Square Garden and its chairman must pay $11.6 million in damages to former New York Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders in her sexual harassment lawsuit.

The jury also found Knicks coach Isiah Thomas subjected Browne Sanders to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but that he did not have to pay punitive damages.

Deciding MSG had harassed Browne Sanders, the jury found the Garden owes $6 million for allowing a hostile work environment to exist and $2.6 million for retaliation; MSG chairman James Dolan owes $3 million.

"What I did here, I did for every working woman in America," said Browne Sanders, who came out of the courtroom beaming. "And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment."

She said it also was for "women who don't have the means and couldn't possibly have done what I was able to do."

The Garden said it would appeal, but the verdict gave Thomas a partial victory after an ugly, three-week trial.

"I'm innocent, I'm very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing," said Thomas, who's married with two children. "I'm extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have."

After the verdict, Browne Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch called it an "eminently reasonable" verdict, and gave the jurors instructions on how to proceed. Before the jury resumed deliberations, attorneys from both sides appealed to the jurors.

Browne Sanders' lawyer, Anne Vladeck, had urged the jury to affix damages that sent a message "to avoid this happening to somebody else." She said the defendants had ruined her client's career, and she called Dolan a liar.

Thomas' lawyer, Ronald Green, told jurors they had already sent "a very clear, very strong and very forceful message.

"Punishment for the sake of punishment is not what this is all about," he said.

The harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge yesterday indicating that it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.

"We believe that the jury's decision was incorrect," MSG said in a statement before punitive damages were awarded. "We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place and MSG acted properly."

MSG is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., based in Bethpage, N.Y., and Dolan is Cablevision's CEO. Shares fell 35 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.71 in afternoon trading.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Oct/02/br/br4108239657.html