MSG Settles Courtney Prince Sexual Harassment Suit

Just two weeks after settling with Anucha Browne Sanders, MSG eliminates their other pending sexual harassment suit by announcing a confidential settlement with Courtney Prince.

Both sides issued statements saying that there was no admission of wrongdoing by MSG. Sure. There's no way Courtney Prince did not get serious money here. The case was settled on MSG's timetable, not hers. Her trial was not even scheduled. MSG needed this to go away as it tries to get the focus off the ridiculous behavior of its front office.

The other reason I think she got serious money is that the Bush EEOC, not exactly a hotbed of liberal activism, tried to force an $800,000 settlement on MSG a few years ago. There's no way she settled for less. Just no way. Especially after some of the cheerleaders she worked with said that MSG had coerced them into making false statements against her. She had plenty of evidence against MSG, now evidence of them fabricating evidence; and what kind of reputation does James Dolan have at this point? You can't feel anything but happy but that jerk is writing her a big check.

NYTimes: Garden Settles a Lawsuit Filed by a Former Rangers Cheerleader

Isiah Thomas & MSG: $11.5 Worth of "Innocence"

She's smiling now!
Isiah Thomas, October 2, 2007:

“I want to say it as loud as I possibly can. I am innocent. I’m very innocent. I did not do the things that she accused me in the courtroom of doing. I am extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this.”

Isiah Thomas and MSG today settled with Anucha Browne Sanders for $11.5 million dollars. That's $11.5 million worth of innocent, very innocent.

I have one question. What would they have paid if he were guilty?

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy and a nicer bunch of schmucks.

New Court Filings in Anucha Browne Sanders Case

MSNBC illustrated their story with this picture.
Anucha Browne Sander's lawyers filed her response to the defendant's motion to dismiss her case (routine in civil cases) and those papers were unsealed by the court yesterday. This case remains a doozy. Browne Sanders attorneys say Isiah Thomas told a cheerleader to go to the referees' lockerroom and "make them happy"; that guard Stephon Marbury had sex with a Garden employee, who said she felt she could not say no because of who he was; and that Stephon Marbury called Browne Sanders a "black bitch". He admits calling her a bitch.

I think it's interesting how Browne Sanders attorneys' portray Isiah Thomas telling the cheerleader to go to the refs lockerroom and "make them happy". The cheerleader interpreted the statement as "go in there and flirt with them." I think you could just as easily presume that he meant, go in there and have sex with them. I wonder if they will argue it that way, or stick with the cheerleader's interpretation.

MSG is going to call Browne Sanders a liar because she filed false tax returns. When MSG asked for her tax returns in discovery, her lawyers must have discovered her two major falsehoods. One, she wrote off expenses on a consulting business. Either the consulting business did not exist, or it was prohibited by her MSG contract and would have voided the contract. Whichever it was, her lawyers filed corrected tax returns retracting the deductions and paying the taxes. They also corrected her claim of charitable deductions that she hadn't made. Essentially, she cheated on her taxes.

I ran into this problem a lot in civil cases. People don't realize that when you file a lawsuit, you open up your life to examination. And nobody like paying their hard-earned money to the government. My clients tended to be more working class, so the big problem I ran into was clients who had worked under the table. I would say to them, if you want the court system to enforce the law, you have to expect to comply with the law in all respects. People of means don't work under the table, but they have their own way of cheating the government. And open themselves up to the accusation of being liars, because essentially they lied to the government on their tax returns.

Politicians do this too. The richest man running for President right now is the Mittwit, Mitt Romney. In the three years before he decided to run for Massachusetts governor, he took a homestead exemption on his taxes for his home in Utah. It saved him $148,800 on his taxes. A multi-millionaire lied on his taxes to save $54,600 a year. He blamed it on his tax preparer, too, and the voters of Massachusetts forgave him. We'll see whether this really hurts Browne Sanders at trial.

WNBC.com (AP): Former Exec.: Isiah Thomas Urged Cheerleader To Flirt With Refs

NYDailyNews: Garden of sin in suit
Fired executive's filing tells of sleazy doings by Isiah and Marbury

The sordid allegations include:

* Thomas allegedly urged Knicks cheerleader Petra Pope to cozy up to the refs before a game against the Nets in 2004.

"What she told me was that Isiah asked her to go into the referees' locker room and make them happy," Browne Sanders testified. "I asked her to tell me what that meant and she said, 'Well, he wanted me to flirt with the referees.'"

She said Pope told her she reluctantly did as she was asked.

* In November 2005 a member of Browne Sanders' staff told her and another female Garden executive that she had sex with Marbury in a car after a boozed-filled night at a "gentleman's club."

The woman said Marbury textmessaged her a few day later saying, "I want some more of that," according to court documents.

The woman told her bosses the sex was consensual. But she also said "she did not believe she could say no because of who Marbury is," according to the court documents.

* Browne Sanders claims Marbury called her a "black b----" after she complained that the star guard's cousin - who also was employed by the Knicks - had been making graphic sexual comments to her staff.

But Knicks brass said in a statement that the suit filed by the team's former senior vice president for marketing and business operations was "riddled with fabrications."

[]

At one point the Garden was ready to make the case go away with cash, according to court papers. But when Browne Sanders' lawyers asked for $6million in 2005, Garden Chairman Jim Dolan called it "ridiculous" and nixed the payout, the papers said.

Earlier that year, Browne Sanders was given a $75,000 raise and her annual salary jumped to $250,000. She said she was told she was doing a terrific job and, with the Garden's backing, was named to the Sports Business Journal's list of top professionals.

The Post's article lays out MSG's defense:

NYPost: FOUL ON STEPHON
KNICK STAR SLAPPED IN MSG SEX SUIT

In a statement, an MSG spokesman said, "This lawsuit, just like Anucha's four years of phony tax returns, is riddled with fabrications from a fired and disgruntled former employee who was let go for poor performance and manipulating subordinates for personal gain."

"The public should know and the jury will learn that Anucha will make up stories and twist facts to pursue her real goal: money," the spokesman said.

A lawyer for Sanders called MSG's statement "a desperate attempt to mislead the public."

The documents released yesterday also show that Sanders, whose salary reached $300,000, had cashed in on nearly $80,000 in bogus tax deductions while she was on the team.

She scurried to cover her tracks last year by filing new tax returns for 2003 and 2004 - but only after a federal judge in her sex-harassment suit ordered her to share copies with MSG.

In her original tax forms, Sanders claimed she ran a "direct marketing" business out of her home from 2001 to 2004 - an unauthorized moonlighting gig that would have violated her contract with the Knicks.

Sanders wrote off nearly $20,000 in annual travel, meals and other expenses for a business she now claims she never operated - blaming her former tax preparer for the alleged fraud, which also involved padding her contributions to charity by tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Sanders has accused the married coach Isiah Thomas of repeatedly propositioning her for sex, then calling her a "bitch" and "ho" when she rejected his advances.

Too Hot to Blog

Yankees captain Derek Jeter meets C. Vivian Stringer, head coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team, before Friday night's game. (Julie Jacobson/AP)
I know I've used this a post title before, but really, 94 degrees in June? It's like living in a swamp.

Here are some updates on stories we've covered previously:

Anucha Browne Sanders has finally landed another job, as the senior Associate Athletic Director for marketing and senior women's administrator for the University at Buffalo (what in the old days we would have called SUNY Buffalo, I guess UB sounds trendier.)

A New York investor and ten other business leaders have offered to put up Genarlow Wilson's $1 million bond so that he can be free pending appeal. Even Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker's pastor thinks Genarlow Wilson should be released, but still he rots in jail. What a waste.

Rutgers women's basketball team and coach Vivian Stringer have been awarded the 2007 Irv Grossman Award of Merit by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Program at Columbia University, for their play as well as their dignity and grace under pressure during the Imus imbroglio. They've also been nominated for an ESPY. They were also honored by the Yankees at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago. Turns out Derek Jeter is a big supporter and wrote a letter to the team after l'affaire Imus.

Pokey Chatman settled her lawsuit against LSU.

Updates

A211243, Double bird and Owl Effigy Pipe, Virginia, Scott County (Smithsonian)

Courtney Prince, the former New York Rangers cheerleader, has filed her response to MSG's third motion for summary judgment. She says MSG told her to tell the other cheerleaders to act sexy; she also says she did not realize she had been fired for several months. MSG must have raised a statute of limitations defense. Discrimination claims have some of the shortest time limits of any civil claim. You have three years to file suit if you slip and fall or get hit by a car; for sexual harassment, it's six months. MSG immediately issued a press release saying that her claim is baseless and without merit, but as the article notes at the end, George Bush's (read, very conservative) EEOC "has recommended that MSG have its employees undergo sexual harassment discrimination training and pay Prince $800,000 in damages."

The albatross released on Sunday was found waddling on Route 25 in Plymouth yesterday; it's been returned to the Tufts wildlife rescue facility where it was initially nursed back to health.

A reporter for the LATimes tried the Food Stamp Challenge as a vegetarian; she ended up snacking at the sample tables of Whole Foods. Excellent column in the Worcester Telegram lauding Congressman McGovern and his efforts to fight hunger.

Yesterday, while George W. Bush was defending Abu Gonzales, a bird shit on his suit. You cannot make this stuff up.

Anucha Browne Sanders Trial Date Set

Or, as the New York Post puts it: SEPT. 10 TRIAL DATE FOR ISIAH

And let the leaking (from the defense, surely) begin:

Legal sources predict the trial to last two weeks, allowing Thomas to be ready for Knicks' training camp Oct. 1 in Charleston, S.C. Sources deny settlement talks took place recently.

"There's going to be a trial," one legal source said. Browne-Sanders declined comment.

Interestingly, Isiah has dumped his initial attorney and replaced him with a her, the former head of the New York Women's Bar Association. Given Thomas's personnel choices at New York and Indiana, I think this may be a disaster in the making. Like the Stephon Marbury deal.

East Valley Tribune (Phoenix): Inside the NBA: New act in Knicks circus: Thomas trial slated for fall

Barely relevant P.S.: 13 years ago today, Isiah Thomas retired from the NBA.

Courtney Prince Smeared

The Gothamist asked: Who Even Knew The Rangers Had Cheerleaders?

Courtney Prince, the former New York Ranger dancer/skater/cheerleader, is being slimed by Madison Square Garden. MSG has filed a third motion for summary judgment (having lost the first two) and has filed "hundreds of pages of documents" (according to the New York Daily News) characterizing Prince as "a mentally ill pervert" (the Daily News take) and claiming that, according to MSG attorney Melissa Rodriguez, "she suffered from bipolar disorder, a classic symptom of which is hypersexuality." (a direct quote from MSG attorney Rodriguez according to the Daily News.)

Defendants in sexual harassment cases always attack the character of the accuser. Any hint of sexuality on the part of a victim of sexual harassment is suddenly a sin. Easy enough in this case: The Rangers cheerleaders are hired to flaunt their sexuality. Look at the tight outfits!

If the defendant can't find sex, they call her crazy. MSG has just combined both tactics here. She's crazy and hypersexual. And Prince, who was paid $150 per game by MSG, is being attacked with the opinion of a doctor who charges hundreds of dollars per hour for his time. Isn't it ironic?

I was curious about the attorney named as representing Madison Square Garden in the Daily News article, Melissa Rodriguez. I think it's Melissa C. Rodriguez of Morgan, Lewis. (I didn't find any definite corroboration of this, but Morgan, Lewis represents Madison Square Garden in the Isaiah Thomas/Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment lawsuit (pdf link, p. 12), and Morgan, Lewis is one of the large national firms that represents employers.)

Michelle C. Rodriguez, Morgan Lewis

Kind of a come hither photo for a law firm bio, no? People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Rodriguez is a fifth year lawyer with an impressive pedigree (Yale, Columbia Law), but not a lot of experience to be the lead lawyer in a high-profile case. I wonder if she is the lead attorney on the case? Or is she just being used to put out the smear so the big name partner who is handling the case doesn't have to get his/her hands dirty? Is MSG using a woman (and a minority) as window dressing? I handled many sex discrimination cases where young female lawyers were included on the defense team for that very reason.

Anyway, this sounds like typical defense smear tactics, overreaching included. Did you see the movie The Insider? It was the story of the witness, Jeffrey Wigand, who brought down Big Tobacco by revealing how they had covered up scientific research for years. Brown & Williamson had compiled a 500-page dossier of Wigand's alleged misdeeds; it was mostly BS. I suspect MSG complaints about Prince are much the same.

Isn't it funny how MSG promoted Prince to be captain of the Ranger cheerleaders after she'd been there a year, but now she's a hypersexual crazy person? Funny how that happens.

NYDailyNews: Rangers cheerleader sex-crazed, say attorneys

deadspin: MSG Pulling No Punches In Dance Skater Lawsuit

Opinion [on Summary Judgment motions], Prince v. Madison Square Garden, et al., April 10, 2006 [pdf file] [or view here in HTML format]

NYMagazineDailyIntelligencer: Hungry Cheerleader Claims Harassment Over Tater Tots

Sports News Updates

TOTALLY UNRELATED PHOTO: Jan Christensen's "Relative Value" on display at the MGM Gallery in Oslo. The painting featuring 16,311 dollars (12,400 euros) of banknotes glued to a canvas proved too tempting to thieves, who made off with it at the weekend.(AFP/Scapix/File)

Here are some updates on some wildly disparate sports stories we've followed here:

Jen Harris settled her case against Penn State and their lesbian-hating coach Rene the Weenie Portland. Terms were not disclosed, although Harris's lawyer said in a separate statement that Penn State would be taking steps to "further protect all students who have experienced discriminatory treatment". Read opinions on the settlement here, here, and here. As a veteran of many sexual harassment claims, I'm sure Penn State had dug up enough dirt on Harris that she didn't want to go to trial and be embarrassed. Even though Rene Portland probably knew none of it when she kicked Harris off the team for being a lesbian, courts have routinely allowed defendants to embarrass victims of sexual harassment in this situation. I hope the kid got a bucketload of money.

Ranger dancer Courtney Prince won a victory in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the New York Rangers. She will be given all paperwork generated by the Rangers in their internal investigation of her claims, and their investigation of five other claims, including the claim by Anucha Browne Sanders .

Liverpool's Welsh firebrand Craig Bellamy tells the truth about him teeing off against John Arne-Riise before their ChampionsLeague clash with Barcelona last week. Yup, he threatened his teammate with a golf club. Idiota.

Despite more and more national attention to his case, Genarlow Wilson still rots in jail in Georgia. The Georgia state senate has voted the bill that would allow his case to be reviewed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but they are on a two week recess.

First Round: Anucha Browne Sanders 1, Knicks/Isiah Thomas 0

The EEOC, the federal administrative agency that enforces employment law, has found "probable cause" to believe Anucha Browne Sanders was sexually harassed by Isiah Thomas, and that the New York Knicks retaliated against her by firing her when she complained.

Under Title VII, the federal employment law, and under New York State law, a plaintiff is required to present her claims at the agency level first prior to going to court. Because of the very short time limits to file employment cases, her case is also filed in federal court, and according to these articles settlement discussions have been initiated there.

The probable cause finding by the EEOC is admissible in court, but that doesn't mean that the case is over, or that Sanders will necessarily win at trial. At trial it is just another piece of evidence in her favor.

This is the result I expected, as Browne Sanders is a respected professional with years of accomplishments on her resume, and she has one of the best plaintiff's employment law firms in New York City representing her. They wouldn't have taken her claim if it wasn't a winner. However, the EEOC doesn't always get it right; the agency has been under attack from within for years, as the Bush Administration has choked off funds and prefers the agency to bring cases for whites claiming reverse discrimination. So it is a victory for her to get this ruling.

It will be interesting to see if the Knicks continue to take this hard stand, or if they face reality and put some real money on the table. They can take this to trial, but they'll lose. Isiah Thomas hasn't had a winner since he left the court for the Detroit Pistons. He destroyed the CBA, tried to destroy the Indiana Pacers (he was interrupted from the mission when GM Larry Bird fired his ass), and is in the process of destroying the New York Knicks. You've got to have a big ego to fire Larry Brown.

NYTimes: [EEOC] Report Supports Claims in Suit Against Thomas

The commission’s investigation supported Browne Sanders’s contention that she had been a victim of more than one incident of harassment and that “she was subjected to a hostile work environment including, but not limited to, severe and pervasive verbal sexual harassment.”

The determination, by Spencer H. Lewis Jr., the district director of the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]’s New York office, said the Garden had failed to take “reasonable care to prevent or correct discrimination and harassment in the workplace.”

Lewis made his determination last Friday, and it was released yesterday. His two-page letter did not describe the scope of the commission’s investigation or name witnesses.

Lewis found that the commission’s inquiry supported Browne Sanders’s contention that the Garden had fired her in retaliation for reporting her claims to her supervisors. Lewis also wrote that there was probable cause to believe the Garden violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Garden, but not Thomas, was the subject named in the commission’s investigation.

NYDaily News: Ruling supports accuser's suit

Newsday: Point for MSG accuser
Agency affirms executive's claim she was harassed, fired for complaining and clears way for settlement talks

SI: Mess at MSG
EEOC: Evidence supports Knicks exec's claims

Anucha Browne Sanders Update

The former New York Knicks executive's sexual harassment lawsuit continues.

Newsday doesn't think the Garden's attempt to smear her is going anywhere:

MSG firing Anucha air ball

Madison Square Garden and Garden dirt-diggers are working overtime on Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knicks executive who filed a sexual- harassment suit against Isiah Thomas. And they couldn't fill a thimble with what they've dug up so far.

We have learned -- assuming the dirt-diggers and dishers are dead on -- that Browne Sanders once scolded Marcus Camby for refusing to meet a VIP.

That she told Clarence Weatherspoon (who wasn't named after an eating utensil for nothing) that he might consider dropping a few pounds.

We learned she requested a full page for herself in the media guide.

We learned she once kept Willis Reed waiting for 30 minutes in the reception area.

My sources tell me this is only the beginning.

It hasn't come out yet, but my people say she didn't always floss as a child.

And she routinely doesn't curb her dog.

And she once took call- waiting while talking to Walt Frazier.

All this is B.S., of course, which is only a half-step below what the dirt-diggers have gathered on Browne Sanders. If that.

We're eight days in, and they've got nothing on Nucha, as she was called as an all-everything basketballer at Northwestern.

There's another sexual harassment case pending against Madison Square Garden, this by the former captain of the Ranger City Dancers, Courtney Prince. The EEOC has already investigated and found probable cause that she was harassed:

Skater's garden torment
Sex harassment nightmare

A New York Times hockey writer was involved!

What's Missing in 'NY Times' Coverage of Sex Harrassment Case?
A Times hockey writer allegedly plays a role in a high-profile lawsuit, as revealed by another New York daily this week. Why has the Times reported on the case -- but not mentioned its own employee's relation to it?

The Garden has a long history of sexual harassment complaints by female employees, according to the New York Daily News:

Sex woes sprout at garden
News probe uncovers history of complaints

The Madison Square Garden empire is a hotbed of sexual harassment, with pervasive complaints from temporary bar staff to senior managers, a Daily News investigation has found.

Past and present female employees described an overwhelming "frat boy" culture that seemingly permeates every tier of the huge organization, according to interviews and legal papers.

Though a sign posted at the employee entrance to the Garden on W. 33rd St. promises "fair and respectful treatment" to all personnel, female employees told The News of instances where they work surrounded by sexist jokes, bikini-clad pinups and even a blowup doll.

Others described much more aggressive and frightening abuse — incidents stunningly similar to harassment claims made by Anucha Browne Sanders, the Knicks' former vice president of marketing, and former Rangers City Skater Courtney Prince.

Isiah Thomas treated the CBA owners and personnel like crap while he was running that league into bankruptcy:

Menace behind the smile
CBA owners: Isiah nasty,
incompetent behind closed doors

Support for Anucha Browne Sanders

Hard to find on the sports pages, but here's a little:

Jon Heyman in Newsday:

Thomas speaks, says nothing

The Knicks' spin machine is suggesting she wasn't a great employee now, after previously telling us she was a "rising star" (Garden honcho Steve Mills' words, Advertising Age, 2002). The real word back at the Garden is that she's both "professional and not approachable," a characterization that could easily fit what a Northwestern basketball teammate told Newsday. (A disclaimer: I attended Northwestern at the same time as Browne Sanders but did not know her.)

[]

Thomas and his Garden people are trying to paint Browne Sanders as a gold digger. I am unmoved. What they offered [reportedly, $250,000, one year's salary] was not a good trade for her if she's telling the truth. Last week she was a respected executive, the NBA's third-highest ranking female, behind the Lakers' Jeannie Buss and the Wizards' Susan O'Malley. Today, she is unemployed and fighting a famous, powerful, (usually) persuasive man and his PR machine.

Andrew Peyser in the New York Post:

UGLY TACTICS LOSING HIM POINTS FOR CREDIBILITY

Thomas said he ignored advice to keep his mouth shut. He wanted to speak publicly so he might "look all of you in the eye" and deny the charges, said his lawyer, Peter Parcher.

But Thomas looked at the table. Out the window - anywhere except in my eye as he refuted charges he told a woman executive that he loved her, wanted to have sex with her, and finally, fired her.

[]

Spiel done, Thomas sped out of the room. Earlier, Thomas' accuser, Anucha Browne Sanders, also spoke to the media.

I have no idea if she's telling the truth. But when I met her afterward, she looked me in the eye - though she's a 6-foot-1 giantess, and I'm a 5-foot-3 shrimp.

"It's outrageous," she told me, as lawyers tensed.

"Outrageous." Then she let out a bitter laugh.

"I complained, and they fired me. It's a crazy time," she said, explaining the laugh.

Are we being used in an extortion plot?

It goes with the script that Thomas' camp reached instantly for an ulterior motive, rather than deal with the charges. They changed the subject.

I can't imagine why one of the highest-ranking women in all of professional sports would toss away her career, make herself a target, in the hope of winning a few bucks.

But that's me.

This has just begun.

Selena Roberts at the New York Times also writes in support of Browne Sanders, but her article is behind the subscription wall. A quote* from her article: "What transpired between Browne Sanders and Thomas isn't known as fact. But many elements of her complaint square with the Garden's history of hubris and male privilege."

Previous post: Color Me Not Surprised


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This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.

Color Me Not Surprised

Sexual Harassment Suit Filed Against Thomas and Garden

A former high-level Knicks executive filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing Isiah Thomas, the team's president, of sexual harassment and discrimination, saying he had made unwanted advances, cursed her and barred players from working with her on community events.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, said that Thomas refused to stop his actions despite her protests and discomfort, and that her immediate supervisor, Steve Mills, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports, did nothing to intercede on her behalf.

Why the defendants *should* settle:

1. Sanders has got a great lawyer, one of the top employment discrimination lawyers in New York: Judith Vladeck. I can hear her cigarette-scarred voice now. She wouldn't have taken this case without thoroughly evaluating it first. They've got something here.

2. Sanders has been with the Knicks since 2000, so she has three years worth of good performance evaluations on her side.

3. She's been in the workplace for over 20 years and her previous employer was IBM. This was an executive position with the Knicks, and knowing the NBA and its teams, there weren't too many women this high in an organization. She's no figurehead.

4. Isiah is socially personable, but not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Remember him saying that Larry Bird would be just another player if he were black?

Another take: Isiah Thomas Handles Women As Well As He Handles ... Well, Everything Else

Actually, she’s not just an “employee;” she’s Anucha Browne Sanders, the former vice president of marketing whose bio is still up on the Knicks’ Web site. She’s hardly some opportunistic floozy; she’s a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year at Northwestern, she made Sports Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list in 2003 and before coming to the Knicks, she did IBM marketing efforts for 11 years, including spearheading their Atlanta 1996 campaign. She also is married and has three children.

Sanders bio from nba.com:

Anucha Browne Sanders

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations
New York Knickerbockers

Knicks Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Operations Anucha Browne Sanders was elevated to her current position in the spring of 2002 after joining the organization as Vice President of Marketing on Nov. 20, 2000.

The Brooklyn, New York native is responsible for the day-to-day management of the business side of the Knicks front office and serves as the team’s chief marketing officer. She oversees all of the club’s business activities and revenue streams, including partnerships, ticketing, fan development, field marketing, event presentation, community relations, special events and new media. She also works closely with MSG’s other sports properties - the New York Rangers and New York Liberty - in finding new and innovative ways to integrate the three very distinct and highly successful brands and is the primary liaison between the team and the NBA. Her professional success has not gone unnoticed, as she was named to the Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under Forty” list in 2003, honoring the top 40 professionals in the sports field under 40 years old. She was also honored for her work (along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton), by Greater New York Links, Inc. an organization comprised of 11,000 African-American women nationwide, and has been a featured speaker at numerous sports marketing conferences and seminars ranging from the Harvard Business School to the Active 2002 Sport and Recreation Industry Conference in western Australia. Most recently, Anucha was honored with the 2004 Miracle Award by The Miracle Makers, a not-for-profit family and children’s services group in New York.

Prior to joining the Knicks, Anucha spent 11 years with IBM Corporation, serving in a number of roles, most recently as a Program Manager in IBM’s Worldwide Sports Office. In that capacity, she was responsible for a number of IBM’s marketing efforts during the Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Nagano 1998 and Sydney 2000), including corporate sponsorship efforts that allowed IBM to leverage their investment as a Worldwide Olympic sponsor.

The Northwestern University graduate was no stranger to success on the hardwood. She was a three-time All Big Ten selection and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year for the Wildcats, finishing her career as the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten women’s basketball history, as well as the school’s all-time leader in points (2,307) and rebounds (951). The two-time Wade Trophy nominee and 1985 Kodak All-American also led the nation in scoring with a school record 31.5 ppg in 1984-85. She was also selected to play on the U.S. National Team that toured Europe and Asia following her graduation. Her long list of athletic honors includes being selected Northwestern’s Athlete of the Decade for the ‘80’s and being inducted to the Wildcats Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. She was also honored by the Empire State Games as one of it’s top athlete’s of the first 25 years the competition has been in existence, in the summer of 2002.

Among her numerous philanthropic activities, Anucha serves on the board of Children’s Village, a private, New York State, not-for-profit corporation that provides aid, comfort and hope to over 80,000 children. She also traveled to Southern Asia this past summer to assist the victims of the tsunami with their recovery and rebuilding efforts as part of a trip organized by Phillips Exeter Academy. Anucha holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Communications from Northwestern, and a Masters degree in Marketing Communications from Florida State University. She resides with her husband Roy and their three children in New Jersey.