boutons_
01-26-2006, 12:03 AM
January 26, 2006
Sports of The Times
Sour Days in Knicks' Executive Suite
By HARVEY ARATON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/columns/harveyaraton/?inline=nyt-per)
JUST when New York City was declared an Anna Benson-free zone, safe from the desperate-for-attention baseball wife, along came another tough-talking female, crashing the headlines of the male sports sanctum in what is, sadly, the most common manner, the dominant purview of women from the field of play.
While there is no way of knowing yet if the sexual harassment suit filed Tuesday by a recently fired female Knicks (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/newyorkknicks/index.html?inline=nyt-org) business executive against the team president, Isiah Thomas (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/isiah_thomas/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and Madison Square Garden has merit, the charges made by Anucha Browne Sanders do remind us that a woman who walks and talks in the lair of men can be made to suddenly disappear.
She can be traded to Baltimore, as was the mouthy-but-harmless Anna Benson with her husband, Kris, or summarily dismissed for being the gatecrasher who, in the final corporate analysis, threw like a girl.
"I am appalled by Anucha Browne Sanders's outrageous allegations," Steve Mills, the Garden's president and chief operating officer, said yesterday, apparently supporting the argument that she suddenly turned incompetent after more than five years on the job.
Did Thomas merely tune out a holdover from the previous regime? The case of Browne Sanders, listed in the Knicks' directory as the organization's fifth-ranking member, one slot below Thomas, could very well be one more in a never-ending series of fateful clashes between high-level Garden power brokers, with the added spice of gender conflict.
Or it could be another wild ride down the icy slope that players of entitlement often take when they mistake every female in their workspace for the groupie in the hotel lobby.
Based on the known evidence, the latter seemed to be the course chosen by Tim Nardiello, whose "inappropriate actions," in the opinion of the United States Olympic Committee, have cost him his job as the Olympic skeleton coach. Eerie was the juxtaposition of the second Knicks bombshell within a week with the news that Nardiello will not go to the Winter Games in Italy next month after a four-week investigation by the U.S.O.C. into charges by several female team members of sexual harassment.
Nardiello, operating in a sport where money is hardly the name of the game, told The Associated Press that he is the victim of a political sham. Thomas's defense is that Browne Sanders is shaking him down.
"I did not harass Anucha; I did not discriminate against her; I did not fire her; I did not participate in any discussion that led to her being fired; she did not even work for me," Thomas said, reading defiantly from a statement at a news conference. "I will not allow her or anybody else, man or woman, to use me as a pawn for their financial gain."
As always, Thomas was calm, collected and cool, belying the frenzied campaigns being waged by both sides via aggressive public relations firms. Maybe he is guilty of nothing more than wanting his own people in place, but if Browne Sanders has a well-documented case, it will be a much graver threat to Thomas's job security than trading for Stephon Marbury (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/stephon_marbury/index.html?inline=nyt-per), no matter what Mills and James L. Dolan, the Garden's chairman, say or think now.
Conversely, by the time the Garden's people are finished with Browne Sanders, Anna Benson will look like Donna Reed.
"I know I'm going up against some of the most powerful men in sports," Browne Sanders said in a telephone interview, referring to the Cablevision monolith that spared no expense in taking on the Jets' (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/newyorkjets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) proposal for a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan that would have competed with the Garden for the entertainment dollar.
Browne Sanders added, "And it's very intimidating, but I know I'm doing the right thing because I know what has happened to me."
If nothing else, admire her willingness to take on Thomas, a street fighter who grew to become a franchise player in the N.B.A. at the diminutive height of 6 foot 1, and has scuffled to the finish line of every basketball job he has held, typically leaving burned bridges behind.
It's just a shame that, once again, following up on the sordid skeleton story and the spat in the stands that involved Kendra and Antonio Davis, a woman in sports makes another splash without shooting or kicking a ball.
"This is an ongoing thing about the way gender stereotypes are reinforced," Mary Jo Kane, a University of Minnesota faculty member and the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, said in a telephone interview. "Instead of talking about what Pat Summitt does, the dominant narrative is men-do-sports and women-do-men, the 'Desperate Housewives' view."
While the Seahawks were rushing Sean Locklear from the jail cell he was briefly locked in, after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, back to their offensive line for Sunday's victory over Carolina, America was hearing about every harsh word Kendra Davis ever spoke, including that she once even had a quarrel with Latrell Sprewell (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/latrell_sprewell/index.html?inline=nyt-per). (Who hasn't?)
Now comes another woman in sports with an ax to grind, who will be assailed by her adversaries as desperate, and who will fall into line for the continuing roll call of victims and vixens.
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
Sports of The Times
Sour Days in Knicks' Executive Suite
By HARVEY ARATON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/columns/harveyaraton/?inline=nyt-per)
JUST when New York City was declared an Anna Benson-free zone, safe from the desperate-for-attention baseball wife, along came another tough-talking female, crashing the headlines of the male sports sanctum in what is, sadly, the most common manner, the dominant purview of women from the field of play.
While there is no way of knowing yet if the sexual harassment suit filed Tuesday by a recently fired female Knicks (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/newyorkknicks/index.html?inline=nyt-org) business executive against the team president, Isiah Thomas (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/isiah_thomas/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and Madison Square Garden has merit, the charges made by Anucha Browne Sanders do remind us that a woman who walks and talks in the lair of men can be made to suddenly disappear.
She can be traded to Baltimore, as was the mouthy-but-harmless Anna Benson with her husband, Kris, or summarily dismissed for being the gatecrasher who, in the final corporate analysis, threw like a girl.
"I am appalled by Anucha Browne Sanders's outrageous allegations," Steve Mills, the Garden's president and chief operating officer, said yesterday, apparently supporting the argument that she suddenly turned incompetent after more than five years on the job.
Did Thomas merely tune out a holdover from the previous regime? The case of Browne Sanders, listed in the Knicks' directory as the organization's fifth-ranking member, one slot below Thomas, could very well be one more in a never-ending series of fateful clashes between high-level Garden power brokers, with the added spice of gender conflict.
Or it could be another wild ride down the icy slope that players of entitlement often take when they mistake every female in their workspace for the groupie in the hotel lobby.
Based on the known evidence, the latter seemed to be the course chosen by Tim Nardiello, whose "inappropriate actions," in the opinion of the United States Olympic Committee, have cost him his job as the Olympic skeleton coach. Eerie was the juxtaposition of the second Knicks bombshell within a week with the news that Nardiello will not go to the Winter Games in Italy next month after a four-week investigation by the U.S.O.C. into charges by several female team members of sexual harassment.
Nardiello, operating in a sport where money is hardly the name of the game, told The Associated Press that he is the victim of a political sham. Thomas's defense is that Browne Sanders is shaking him down.
"I did not harass Anucha; I did not discriminate against her; I did not fire her; I did not participate in any discussion that led to her being fired; she did not even work for me," Thomas said, reading defiantly from a statement at a news conference. "I will not allow her or anybody else, man or woman, to use me as a pawn for their financial gain."
As always, Thomas was calm, collected and cool, belying the frenzied campaigns being waged by both sides via aggressive public relations firms. Maybe he is guilty of nothing more than wanting his own people in place, but if Browne Sanders has a well-documented case, it will be a much graver threat to Thomas's job security than trading for Stephon Marbury (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/stephon_marbury/index.html?inline=nyt-per), no matter what Mills and James L. Dolan, the Garden's chairman, say or think now.
Conversely, by the time the Garden's people are finished with Browne Sanders, Anna Benson will look like Donna Reed.
"I know I'm going up against some of the most powerful men in sports," Browne Sanders said in a telephone interview, referring to the Cablevision monolith that spared no expense in taking on the Jets' (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/newyorkjets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) proposal for a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan that would have competed with the Garden for the entertainment dollar.
Browne Sanders added, "And it's very intimidating, but I know I'm doing the right thing because I know what has happened to me."
If nothing else, admire her willingness to take on Thomas, a street fighter who grew to become a franchise player in the N.B.A. at the diminutive height of 6 foot 1, and has scuffled to the finish line of every basketball job he has held, typically leaving burned bridges behind.
It's just a shame that, once again, following up on the sordid skeleton story and the spat in the stands that involved Kendra and Antonio Davis, a woman in sports makes another splash without shooting or kicking a ball.
"This is an ongoing thing about the way gender stereotypes are reinforced," Mary Jo Kane, a University of Minnesota faculty member and the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, said in a telephone interview. "Instead of talking about what Pat Summitt does, the dominant narrative is men-do-sports and women-do-men, the 'Desperate Housewives' view."
While the Seahawks were rushing Sean Locklear from the jail cell he was briefly locked in, after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, back to their offensive line for Sunday's victory over Carolina, America was hearing about every harsh word Kendra Davis ever spoke, including that she once even had a quarrel with Latrell Sprewell (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/latrell_sprewell/index.html?inline=nyt-per). (Who hasn't?)
Now comes another woman in sports with an ax to grind, who will be assailed by her adversaries as desperate, and who will fall into line for the continuing roll call of victims and vixens.
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)