Category: New York Knicks

When you get in trouble, the press will stop at nothing to dig up the dirt on you. In this case, a couple of reporters from the NY Daily News tracked down Isiah Thomas’ illegitimate son in Detroit. Good ole Zeke got a woman pregnant 2 months before marrying his current wife. That’s klassy. At least he’s paying for it.

After Marc Dones was born in 1986, Thomas admitted being the father and agreed to pay $52,000, plus $2,764.78 per month until Marc turned 18 – and then a lump sum of $100,000 to the youth.

Not surprisingly, Marc Dones has never met his father and Isiah refuses to return his phone calls.

[Yay Sports!]: Isiah Thomas has a bastard
[NY Daily News]: siah’s 19-year-old love child takes shot at dad he’s never met

It’s not just Knicks fans that hit the sauce because of Zeke. Another detail came out in the sexual harrassment suit against Isiah Thomas: Isiah used to work with concierges at hotels where visiting teams were staying to encourage players to go to bars and strip clubs the night before a game. I’m pretty sure NBA players don’t need much prodding to hit Scores but this is tampering and the Knicks could get fined or disciplined. It could be worse, at least he didn’t send hookers to opponents’ hotel rooms like Lawrence Taylor did.

Man, it’s not a good time to be named Isiah.

[NY Daily News]: Isiah booze probe ‘likely’

And we’re not even talking about the fact that the Knicks have gone 70-98 since trading for Marbury or that they’ve gone 30-61 since Starbury proclaimed himself the best point guard in the NBA. Nope, the problem that Isiah has is that Marbury’s cousins, Hassan Gonsalves and Tasheem Ward, seem to be key names in the sexual harassment suit filed against him.

MSG President Steve Mills told Browne Sanders in the fall of 2004 that MSG chairman James Dolan wanted her to create jobs for Gonsalves and Ward, even though both men were “completely unqualified,” the lawsuit said.

“Gonsalves was ultimately fired by MSG, at Browne Sanders’ urging, because he engaged in repeated and flagrant sexual harassment,” the lawsuit added. “His firing did not occur, however, until he had sexually harassed several women on the staff and had on numerous occasions defrauded the company.”

Sources close to the team told the Daily News that Gonsalves threatened Browne Sanders after he was fired, telling her, “We know you have kids. We know where you live.

Ahhh nepotism at its finest. We’re glad it worked out so well this time.

[NY Daily News]: Marbury kin key players in harass fight

Anucha Browne Sanders, a former Knicks executive is suing Isiah Thomas and MSG Sports for sexual harassment. According to the lawsuit, Zeke was, at first, hostile towards her, making crude remarks to staff and then changed his tune and started making numerous advances towards her. (You know, when Zeke threatened Bill Simmons last week, maybe he was just coming on to him.) She claims that he tried to kiss her last month and once told her, “I know you think I’m inappropriate. But I’m in love with you.”

Now, I’m no fan of Isiah Thomas, although I appreciate that he’ll keep the Knicks a terrible team with his tinkering, but I’ll withold judgement, even if this is the guy who single-handedly swindled all the CBA owners and bankrupted the league in 12 months. Still, if you need a smoking gun, Sanders said that Thomas “compared his feelings for her to experiences the characters had in the film ‘Love and Basketball.'” I’m pretty sure no one can make that up.

[NY Times]: Sexual Harassment Suit Filed Against Thomas and Garden

I don’t think being confronted is worth $1M but apparently Michael Axelrod does. In last night’s game in Chicago, Antonio Davis jumped into the stands because he thought his wife was being threatened. “I witnessed my wife being threatened by a man that I learned later to be intoxicated. I saw him touch her, and I know I should not have acted the way I did, but I would have felt terrible if I didn’t react. There was no time to call security. It happened too quickly.” After Davis went into the stands, security intervened and Davis calmly returned to the bench.

No harm no foul. But I guess when you want to sue for $1M for battery (by a woman) and slander, you have to say things like this:

I don’t feel comfortable if players are allowed to easily jump into the crowd whenever they feel like it’s necessary.

You know, one time, Gary Payton sneered at me. I want half.

[MSNBC]: Fan suing Knicks’ Davis, wife for $1 million