Sanders' stand is an important victory for women

After former Knicks marketing executive Anucha Browne Sanders won her lawsuit, she said it was for every working woman in America. AP

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Today, that girl is probably wishing I was more like Anucha Browne Sanders.

We were in an NFL stadium press box 10 months ago, the girl and I. She, like me, is a sportswriter, only she thought the couple years I had on her meant I'd have some decent advice. She pulled me into the ladies room, told me about the men asking another man if she was easy. She told me how they deliberated over her body, and she asked me how to deal with what she called "sexual harassment." I told her to laugh.

Today, I'm wishing I was more like Anucha Browne Sanders, too.

When a jury in Manhattan federal court awarded Browne Sanders $11.6 million on Tuesday, out came all the predictable gasps. The jury of four women and three men said Isiah Thomas sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a former Knicks Senior VP, and that Madison Square Garden condoned a noxious work environment. The jury said Knicks owner James Dolan fired Browne Sanders when she complained about the former two. And in a few quick hours of deliberating, the jury settled on an award greater than millions, for a plaintiff bigger than Browne Sanders. This jury said women in the world of sports can go ahead and be women.

The world of sports is a man's world. Most executives on mahogany row are men. For writers, most of the athletes we cover are men, most reporters we see in a press box are men, most of the editors we call are men. Women figure out early the only way this works is to be one of the boys. Upstairs, with our colleagues, we shrug when they debate whether we're "press box hot." Downstairs, in the locker room, we pretend we don't hear when players debate whether we're "cockwatchers." We try to fit in, we labor not to be seen as outsiders and we know raising a fuss is fussing with our futures.

Browne Sanders got all that. A basketball star at Northwestern, she was a two-time Big Ten Player of the Year and she wasn't at all new to the world of sports when she came to the Knicks in 2000. But somewhere after her first year as a Senior VP, once Isiah Thomas had been brought in, this mother of three decided she was sick of sports' set of standards. She decided crass words, crude language and unwelcome advances aren't supposed to be laughed off, and that outside the sports world, this abuse wouldn't fly.

Browne Sanders complained. She lost her job. She filed a suit, and she said farewell to what she called her "dream job." She knew, she said then, she'd "probably never be able to work again in professional basketball." She was right. She has a master's degree and worked at three Olympics and she says several companies wouldn't give her jobs. Neither, she said, would Rutgers or Georgetown, or even Northwestern, a school that has her in its athletic hall of fame. But she still stuck to her certainty that respect is a right, and after a salacious three-week trial -- replete with promiscuous interns and burn books and racially-gauged slurs -- she won.

"What I did here, I did for every working woman in America," Browne Sanders said as she came out of the courtroom. "That includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning."

Everyone.

Thomas is back at work this morning, in South Carolina, at Knicks' camp. NBA execs are back at work, avoiding this ruling. Six years ago, Ruben Patterson plead guilty to attempted rape and got slapped with a five-game suspension. Five years ago, DeShawn Stevenson plead no contest to having sexual relations with a minor and had to sit for three days. There's no surprise the NBA said it's sitting out this one, ostensibly because it's a civil decision, but probably because debasing women isn't high on the naughty list.

All that means is the only way Browne Sanders' battle becomes worth it is if I change. The only way this jury's decision affects the world of sports is if that girl in the press box realizes she doesn't need someone else to decide whether she feels harassed. The only way Browne Sanders' immense nerve becomes true valor is if women in locker rooms stand up for themselves.

This New York City jury said the world of sports doesn't have to operate under its own yardstick. This jury said women in sports have the same rights as women everywhere. This jury said I can do my job differently today.

Now, will I?