Isiah Thomas named president of WNBA’s New York Liberty

Isiah Thomas is the new president of the WNBA’s New York Liberty, and I cannot think of a much worse man for the job.

Despite losing a multimillion dollar sexual harassment lawsuit and losing his job for running the New York Knicks franchise into the ground just a few years ago, Isiah Thomas is somehow back in professional basketball. To make matters worse, he is coming back as the president of the WNBA‘s New York Liberty.

This brings us to the question that myself and everybody else in America find ourselves asking; how does a man lose an $11.6 million lawsuit for sexual harassment, yet manage to land a job leading an organization in the Women’s National Basketball Association?

I am just as dumbfounded as the rest of you.

The details of the 2007 lawsuit against Thomas are pretty damning, and when you start breaking down the money aspect of the suit, it makes the notion that he should land a job as a team executive anywhere ridiculous, much less as the president of a WNBA. Thomas was the head coach of the Knicks when he lost the lawsuit.

Out of the $11.6 million that the plaintiff was awarded as a result of Thomas’ transgressions, $6 million was for the hostile work environment that he created after denying his sexual advances, and $5.6 million was for her being fired as a result of filing a sexual harassment claim. You know, commonplace in a safe work Knicks owner James Dolan was forced to pay $3 million of that lawsuit, and Madison Square Garden was on the hook for the rest.

For some reason that I cannot fathom, Dolan is giving Thomas a second chance, and this time it is running the professional women’s basketball team that he also owns. When you dig further into his handling of the sexual harassment lawsuit, however, the decision to rehire Thomas is not as surprising as it appears on the surface.

At the lawsuit, Dolan backed Thomas one hundred percent of the way, going as far to possibly tampering with the investigation to prevent any further backlash on his company, which owns Madison Square Garden and the teams that call the venue home.

"“Dolan made up a reason, and everyone at the Garden had to scramble to justify the reason,” Anne C. Vladeck, the victim’s lawyer, told the New York Post. “Every witness brought here is on James Dolan’s payroll.”"

Even allegedly having the witness stand in Dolan’s pocket could not save Thomas from losing the case, as the evidence mounted against him. Regardless, it was not until after another horrible season by the Knicks that he was fired as the team’s coach. The whole sexual harassment thing apparently was not enough.

Maybe Isiah Thomas is a changed man. Maybe he has a charismatic personality. Maybe this decision will not backfire, as their decision to hire him as the Knicks coach certainly did.

There are way too many “maybes” to give a man of his past another chance. Character flaws are at the forefront of concern in the sports world today, but Dolan’s decision to bring back Thomas clearly disregards any worries about that.

To sum up the absurdity of the situation, Dolan has hired the same man that cost him and his company over $10 million dollars, and are bringing Thomas back into the same arena in which he created a toxic work environment where sexual harassment was of little concern when compared to his status as head coach.

This is the man being brought in to lead a WNBA franchise, and it is a complete and utter embarrassment that reaches way beyond just the worlds of sports.

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