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BasketballJones
Posts: 31973
Alba Posts: 19
Joined: 7/16/2002
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N.B.A. Won’t Act Against Knicks
By HOWARD BECK
Published: October 6, 2007
Amid the afternoon bustle of an Istanbul shopping district yesterday, N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern cut a ribbon, opened a store and pushed the league’s influence a little deeper into the old world. Then he turned his focus back across the Atlantic, to the smoldering controversy surrounding one of the league’s oldest franchises.
Stern said he was troubled by reports of sexual harassment at Madison Square Garden, the home of the Knicks. He vowed more sensitivity training across the league. But he said the league would not discipline the Knicks in the wake of a jury’s finding that Isiah Thomas, the team president, sexually harassed a former team executive.
“I can assure the public that sexual harassment is not acceptable in the N.B.A. workplace, and I’m putting this subject on the agenda for the board of governors meeting later this month,” said Stern, addressing the issue for the first time, after opening the Adidas NBA Concept Shop in Taksim Square.
The N.B.A. administers a seminar about respect in the workplace to its 1,200 employees. Stern said he might make that course mandatory for the employees of all 30 franchises, “because it’s not our style to be laggards on issues like this — nor is it our style to rush to judgment and make meaningless pronouncements.”
Stern said he was “very concerned about the subject of treatment of all people in the workplace, and the subject of respect in general.”
On Tuesday, a seven-person jury ordered Madison Square Garden to pay $11.6 million in punitive damages to Anucha Browne Sanders, a former vice president for marketing and business operations. Browne Sanders accused Thomas of using derogatory and profane language and of making inappropriate advances toward her.
The salacious trial spanned three weeks and served as a daily embarrassment for the Knicks and the league.
“It’s very troubling, personally,” Stern said of the case. “I’ve known Anucha Brown Sanders going back to her days working with I.B.M., and I’ve known Isiah and his family since his days as a player.”
The league often sanctions team personnel for criminal conduct but has not intervened in civil cases. Stern explained the distinction by saying that jury findings in civil lawsuits could be subjective, whereas in criminal trials, “there is a clear verdict of guilt or innocence.”
“So we’re focusing on what is appropriate here — what’s appropriate as a litigation matter, what’s appropriate as a factual matter and what’s appropriate as the N.B.A.’s policy,” he said.
In Stern’s view, the Knicks and the Garden “took a pretty big hit,” but he suggested that the trial, in the broader view, “is not damaging from a leaguewide perspective.”
Stern dismissed reports that he would ask Charles Dolan, the chairman of Cablevision, which owns the Knicks, to reduce the day-to-day role of his son, James L. Dolan, the Garden chairman.
Asked if he had spoken to the elder Dolan, Stern said, “Here in Istanbul, at the Adidas store, I’m not going to go into what privileged communications I might have had — and I deem owner-to-commissioner communications as privileged — although it would be fair to say that I have been in touch with the Garden, both before and after the verdict.”
REBOUNDS
It appears that the 15 players who came to training camp with guaranteed contracts this week will be the 15 players who will make the opening-night roster. At least, that was the impression Isiah Thomas gave yesterday in Charleston, S.C. Thomas praised the veteran Fred Jones, who was acquired in the Zach Randolph trade. Thomas said there had been no discussion of waiving or buying out Jerome James, the perpetually injured center. That means the Knicks will probably have to trade or waive the rookie Demetris Nichols.
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