Your Mother Slept With Wilt Chamberlain

The rumors were true, Isiah Thomas & Madison Square Garden were found guilty of sexual harassment earlier today, but something isn’t quite right…

“In an end to a salacious three-week trial, a jury ordered the owners of the New York Knicks to pay $11.6 million to a former team executive after finding she endured two years of crude insults and unwanted advances from coach Isiah Thomas.

The jury of four women and three men found that both Thomas and Madison Square Garden had sexually harassed Anucha Browne Sanders. But they also decided that only MSG and Chairman James Dolan should pay punitive damages for the harassment and for firing the plaintiff from her $260,000-a-year job out of spite.

The result: The Garden owes $6 million for condoning a hostile work environment and $2.6 million for retaliation. MSG chairman James Dolan owes $3 million. Thomas is off the hook for any damages, but leaves the case with a tarnished legacy.”

OK, if Isiah Thomas is guilty then why doesn’t he to have to pay? This verdict leads me to believe that Isiah might have been found guilty by association, that or the jury just really loves Thomas. If two people are caught beating up one innocent person the police would charge both of them. The prosecutor would take both to trial not just one. This verdict confuses me. What has Thomas learned other than it’s OK to sexual harass women, because the boss will pay the fine?

“Outside court, a beaming Browne Sanders, 44, insisted her victory was more about sending a message than the money.

“What I did here, I did for every working woman in America,” she said. “And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment.”

If this was truly about working women and everyone that works in corporate America, then why not share it with all of us? Saying things like that are nice, but let’s be real, that money is nicer.

“Earlier, Thomas emerged from the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan with his trademark smile, but flashed anger as he reasserted his innocence amid a crush of reporters and cameras.

“I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case,” he said. “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.”

Why appeal? You aren’t having to pay a dime. Just retire and live in obscurity like Joe Dumars, oh wait my bad, he’s a great general manager. OK like John Sally, oh wait he’s a host on the successful “Best Damn Sports Show”, OK let think. OK, got it, like Bill Laimbeer, oh damn he’s a championship winning coach in the WNBA with a lot of NBA teams starting to look his way.

“The verdict also amounts to another blemish on the resume of Thomas, a two-time NBA champion whose post-playing career has been marked by one failure after another.

Jurors — who needed roughly two days to decide on the allegations but only about an hour to determine damages — declined to talk about the verdict or how they came to their decision.

In a lawsuit filed last January, Browne Sanders sought $10 million in punitive damages, but the jury was free to deviate from that figure. The verdict also means that the judge will determine and award compensatory damages in the coming weeks.

The harassment verdict was expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three and former vice president for marketing.

The jurors had heard Browne Sanders testify that Thomas, after arriving as new team president in 2004, routinely addressed her as “bitch” and “ho” in outbursts over marketing commitments. He later did an abrupt about-face, declaring his love and suggesting an “off-site” liaison, she said.

Again I ask the question, why wasn’t Thomas forced to pay anything?

Dolan and a string of other executives also took the witness stand to deny that they tolerated or witnessed sexual harassment. They testified that Browne Sanders was fired because she was incompetent on budget matters, and because she later sought to undermine an internal inquiry into her allegations against Thomas.

At the Knicks training camp in South Carolina on Tuesday, Marbury and other players said it was time for the team to move past the off-court controversy. Thomas was expected to arrive on Wednesday.

“It’s a tough situation and the only thing we can do now is go forward,” Marbury said.

Forward Malik Rose predicted the team would rally behind Dolan and Thomas.

“We all know what kind of guy ‘Mr. D’ is,” he said. “We all know what kind of guy Isiah is and how they treat us. I’m sure all you guys agree this is a first-class organization.”

Oh shit Isiah will be in my state. Guys lock up your wives and daughters quickly! I respect Malik Rose, he’s a great player. However, a first class organization doesn’t find itself in lawsuits, fire a coach after just one year of coaching & employ Isiah Thomas.

Tell me you don’t see the resemblance!

So I profess on this day 10/02/07.

TtT