Thomas Trial Reverberates in Sports World

By Karyn Chenoweth Oct 4, 2007, 14:15 GMT

Head coach of the New York Knicks, Isiah Thomas calls a play in a game against the Utah Jazz during the fourth quarter at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah 10 February 2007. The Jazz beat the knicks in overtime 104-102. EPA/GEORGE FREY

Saddled with a $11.6 million sexual harassment judgment, the New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, the Madison Square Garden has shown no signs of contrition.

Garden CEO James Dolan will soon have to defend against a similar lawsuit brought by a New York Rangers cheerleader, who has accused her Garden bosses of having her instruct fellow cheerleaders to look more "doable."

The Garden has vowed to fight the case.

Legal experts who were closely watching the Thomas trial predict that the verdict won by fired  Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders will send a message that locker room behavior cannot be tolerated in team offices.

"I don't think it will fail to resonate across the world of professional sports," Fred Nance, a sports  law attorney who represents NBA star LeBron James, said Wednesday.

That's the message Browne Sanders was hoping to send.

In a televised interview Wednesday she said she hoped her victory was a "wake-up call" for corporate  America as well as sexually harassed women.

"I hope it has an impact ... for employers across industry to take heed and pay attention and take responsibility for the workplace," Browne Sanders said, adding she hoped her case also would embolden women to speak up about workplace abuse.
"Silence never makes change," she said.

Nance and other observers were struck by the fact that the jury of four women and three men singled out Dolan as a main culprit, recognizing that the tone for the workplace is set at the top.

The jurors found the MSG chairman fired Browne Sanders out of spite and should pay $3 million out of his own pocket as punishment. Thomas, meanwhile, pays nothing.
"That's a lesson to executives everywhere that these are delicate situations that need to be handled that  way," said Nance, a partner with the Cleveland office of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey.

In the Knicks' offices, according to plaintiff's lawyers, Thomas could address Browne Sanders as "bitch"  and "ho" and get away with it; star guard Stephon Marbury could bed an intern and still be coddled by  Thomas; upper management could draw up rules against sexual harassment and fail to enforce them.

Jurors were shown a videotaped deposition in which Dolan, wearing a black T-shirt and slouched in his  chair, portrayed Browne Sanders - once a rising star in the organization - as an incompetent malcontent  who offended him by demanding a $6 million severance package. He personally made the decision to can her from her $260,000-a-year job without consulting a lawyer, he said.

On the witness stand, Dolan's testimony could have left the impression he had a lax attitude about  vulgarities: Asked if he had ever heard Thomas curse, he replied, "I'm sure I have." Asked if he would  admonish Thomas if he heard him call the plantiff "bitch," he responded, "Possibly."

In the Garden case, the plaintiff, former head cheerleader Courtney Prince, has accused her Garden bosses of having her instruct fellow cheerleaders to stuff their bras and lose weight to look more sexually appealing.

MSG, in court papers, berated Prince for "her own crass, sexualized behavior" and promised a vigorous defense.

The AP reports that the Garden also issued a combative press statement Tuesday regarding the Thomas verdict.

"We believe that the jury's decision was incorrect," the Garden said. "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."