Knick players awoke to another lawsuit yesterday, another scandal, another distraction they did not need a week after the Antonio Davis mess.
Before the Knicks participated in the morning shootaround in preparation for last night’s contest vs. Sacramento, Isiah Thomas, slammed with a sexual harassment lawsuit by the former marketing director, Anucha Browne-Sanders, addressed the team.
It was not a rah-rah speech, just an informational one about what was happening and the possibility of players being asked to give depositions.
“He just told us what was going on,” one Knick player said.
And what’s going on is not good.
“There’s been a lot (of distractions),” Larry Brown said. “But I’m a basketball coach and we’re a team and we have to focus about playing basketball. When things are out of whack, the best thing you can do is be with the team and be involved in games.”
“We just got to focus on basketball,” said rookie Nate Robinson. “That’s the biggest key. A lot of distractions in life. This one just crept on us. Just focus on today’s game.”
Sanders’ exit is the second front-office VP to leave the club since preseason after being fired Thursday. Frank Murphy, senior VP of basketball operations who was in charge of the salary cap, agreed to a “retirement settlement” during preseason after, a source said, he had a disagreement with Thomas. Murphy was with the club since 1990.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated move, former Knick forward Jerome Williams, who was working under Sanders, left the team yesterday to join the Raptors’ front office.
Besides changing over the entire 15-man roster in his two years and having four different head coaches, Thomas also replaced the team doctor, Norman Scott, with Dr. Lisa Callahan and long-time trainer Mike Saunders with Roger Hinds.
Jamal Crawford knows this is not good times for anybody. “It’s a bad situation overall,” Crawford said. “All I think about is I’ve known Isiah since my first year. He’s been a stand-up guy and straight-up with me ever since then. He’s doing fine. Isiah’s a strong person. Ever since Day 1, been straight up with me. That’s how I judge it.”
Sanders, a former Northwestern star, had a reputation for being overly aggressive in trying to get players to do community work. Former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, according to a source, had several “scheduling disagreements” with Sanders, who asked them to do corporate stuff on the day of games.
Before Isiah arrived, Sanders traveled occasionally with the team for road games, hanging with then assistant GM Jeff Nix. But that mostly came to a stop when Thomas was aboard and Nix was reassigned to director of scouting.
Knicks assistant Mark Aguirre, Isiah’s childhood friend, said of the sex suit, “That’s not Isiah. That’s not true. That’s not even close. That’s crazy.”
Knicks upper management appears in full support of Thomas, so his job does not appear in jeopardy. However, with the trading deadline less than a month away, the looming suit could serve as a distraction.
Brown never expected all this turmoil in his first season, starting with the controversial Eddy Curry trade on the eve of training camp. “I’ve known him since I tried to recruit him in high school and he’s a phenomenal human being,” Brown said of Thomas.