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Posted at 2:35 p.m., Wednesday, September 12, 2007

NBA: Marbury says he found sex harass lawsuit 'a joke'

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK — Knicks guard Stephon Marbury testified today in the case of a fired team executive who has accused coach Isiah Thomas of sexual harassment, calling the lawsuit absurd while downplaying an encounter with a drunken intern.

After hearing about the lawsuit brought by Anucha Browne Sanders, "I laughed," Marbury said in U.S. District Court. "It was more of a joke than anything."

Marbury admitted he once called Browne Sanders a "bitch" during a phone conversation with another team employee though he insisted, "I didn't have a reason not to like her."

Browne Sanders says she is owed her vice president position back and at least $10 million for enduring a sexually harassing workplace for five years. Her lawsuit claims she was fired "for telling the truth" about vulgarity and unwanted advances by Thomas, also a team president. Thomas has denied the allegations.

Taking the witness stand earlier Wednesday, Browne Sanders wept while telling the jury of five women and three men that Marbury and his cousins, also Madison Square Garden employees, were part of the problem.

The plaintiff cited a conversation with an MSG intern who confided that she was having a relationship with one of the cousins and had gotten drunk on an outing to a Manhattan strip club in April 2005 that included Marbury. The intern claimed that afterward Marbury lured her into his vehicle for sex, Browne Sanders said.

"She said she basically did whatever he asked her to do and she considered it to be consensual because she got in the car," Browne Sanders testified.

When he took the stand, Marbury admitted pulling up and asking the intern, "Are you going to get in the truck?"' He said she answered, "Yes."

U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch cut off any more questioning on the encounter, saying more details wouldn't help the jury decide the case.

After Marbury finished testifying, he rode down 23 floors in a crowded elevator, saying to no one in particular: "Money makes you do crazy things, man."

Then he left the courthouse, smiling and singing a song out loud. When pressed to divulge more about his relationship with the intern, he instead commented cheerfully on a reporter's shoes.