[MavKikiNYC]

SEX SUIT VS. KNICK PREZ By KATE SHEEHY

Isiah Thomas is a foul-mouthed, slobbering harasser who propositioned the Knicks' former top marketing exec for sex — and even plotted to lure opposing teams to boozy strip joints to throw off their games, an explosive new lawsuit charges. "I know you think I'm inappropriate, but I'm in love with you," Knick President Thomas allegedly cooed to statuesque, then-Vice President Anucha Browne Sanders, according to her suit, which was filed in Manhattan yesterday.

Sanders — an attractive ex-college basketball star and married, 43-year-old mom of three — charges that Thomas' fouls began almost immediately after the former Detroit Pistons hoop legend took over as president of the Knicks at the end of 2003.

"Contrary to Thomas' carefully cultivated public persona, he is capable of abhorrent behavior in private," alleges the lawsuit, which formally charges sex discrimination and then retaliation after Sanders complained and was fired.

"Soon after his hire, he began to sexually harass Sanders, including calling her 'bitch' and 'ho' to her face," the suit says.

"Sexual advances" quickly followed, as the married dad of two began "repeatedly professing his love for [Sanders], making comments about her physical appearance and suggesting that they go 'offsite' together, a thinly veiled solicitation for sex," the suit says.

A man answering Thomas' cellphone hung up last night when a reporter asked for him.
Sanders is suing for unspecified monetary damages — and her job back.

Thomas' lawyers quickly denied the allegations as "a blatant and cynical attempt . . . to get a large sum of money from Madison Square Garden by exploiting the celebrity status of our client.
"While still employed, she demanded from the Garden as a condition of her departure a payment of $6 million, which is more than 20 years of her salary."

A well-placed source said that earlier this month, "[Sanders'] lawyer came to the Garden and said, 'I know how this problem can go away. Six million dollars' — that's what they wanted. "

The Garden said absolutely not, and they fired her."

One of Sanders' lawyers, Kevin Mitzer, denied that exchange ever took place.

"It's not true, and they know it," he said last night.

One source close to the Knick prez insisted that Thomas "is a happily married man — I don't think [Sanders] was even on his radar. "

But Sanders — a former IBM honcho with an impressive record who once helped oversee marketing for that firm's Olympics sponsorship — charges that Thomas' repulsive behavior wasn't limited to her.

In October 2004, "a female employee of the Knicks told Sanders that Thomas had instructed her to flirt with certain men connected to the game and make them happy," her suit alleges.

Then early last year, "Thomas told [her] he was pushing to get more Sunday noon games on the schedule," the lawsuit says.

"Thomas said he was working with the concierges of the hotels frequented by the visiting teams to have the concierges direct players to certain nightclubs — including strip clubs — that Thomas had established relationships with.

"Thomas said that his plan was to induce visiting players to go to these clubs on Saturday night and get them intoxicated so that they would not be prepared to play on Sunday," she says in the suit.
Thomas had been asked to leave work at the end of December while MSG's internal probe into the allegations continued, one source said.

The in-house investigation wound up finding Sanders' complaints "completely untrue," a source said.

But the suit says that only a week after Sanders left work voluntarily before her firing, Thomas "hugged her and tried to kiss her."

The New Jersey mom says that during the past two years, she was so disgusted that she repeatedly complained to her direct boss, MSG President Stephen Mills, and urged him to force Thomas to undergo sexual-harassment therapy — to no avail.

Amid her griping, the 44-year-old Thomas vacillated between blasting her as a "f- - -ing bitch" and continuing to issue suggestive come-ons to her, the suit charges.

Sanders says Thomas became so incensed over her blatant rejections that he turned many of the Knicks' players against her as she tried to market the franchise.

She claims that team superstar Stephon Marbury would routinely blast her as "that black bitch.
"F- - - that black bitch, she thinks she runs the Knicks, but she don't run sh- -!" she quotes Marbury as spouting off. Marbury's agent declined comment last night.

A key source said that at one point, Thomas "did not agree with all of [Sanders] marketing philosophies and schemes."

Thomas was particularly upset that Sanders — who is the fourth leading scorer in Big 10 basketball history after a stellar stint at Northwestern University — tried to get him to record voice messages as part of a phone pitch to draw more fans to games.

"He said, 'I'm not doing that,' " the source said.

Thomas griped to Sanders' boss, who eventually reduced her responsibilities, the source said.

"She blamed Isiah for this and complained to [Mills] all the time" afterward, the source said.
In her suit, Sanders claims that when she met with a human-resources consultant in mid-2005, the worker told her that Mills "had asked him to develop a program for Thomas because he has problems with women."

Toward the end of the year, the suit says, Mills warned her that if she "persisted in raising harassment claims, she should be prepared for Thomas to spread a damaging and false rumor" about her.

Sanders' lawyer, Mitzer, said he was told by the other side as recently as yesterday morning that "Ms. Browne Sanders had substantial claims against MSG, and that the retaliation claim in particular could be difficult . . . to defend."

Still, a source sympathetic to Thomas said:

"Isiah Thomas is a self-made guy. He always has been not only wildly successful as a player but as an executive. And in spite of this threat . . . he and his family have decided that there's no way they're giving in to this."