With Role Diminishing, Curry Shows Confusion

The New York Times cites Jack Tuckner today in relation to Madison Square Garden Sexual and Racial Discrimination: By DAVID PICKER GREENBURGH, N.Y. After one of the most miserable nights of his career, Eddy Curry’s body language after practice Thursday conveyed what a lost soul he seems to have become. As sweat fell from his face, he showed little emotion as he spoke to the news media in soft tones. He offered short answers, his words dripping with frustration. “I have no clue,” Curry said when asked about his future role with the Knicks. “I just got to be ready to play. Whether I start or not, whether I sit for 34, 35 minutes, whatever.” Curry has played himself into uncertainty. Once considered a franchise player, he was used for only 4 minutes 41 seconds in Wednesday’s 110-96 loss at Orlando. He was one of three players who remained in Coach Isiah Thomas’s revamped starting lineup. But after committing two fouls in the game’s opening minutes, he was benched for the next 32. When Curry returned at the start of the fourth quarter, with the Knicks trailing by 3 points, he looked out of sorts. After the Magic went on a decisive burst, Curry was benched again. He finished with 2 points. Curry suggested after practice Thursday that he had withdrawn mentally and physically during his second stint on the bench. “As the minutes started to wind down in the fourth quarter, I just became more of a cheerleader, and my body just kind of shut down a little bit,” he said. Curry added that Thomas never offered him an explanation for the benching, though Thomas told reporters Wednesday that the Knicks simply played well without Curry. Curry has struggled nearly the entire season; his scoring, rebounding and minutes are down from last season. His decline could be viewed an indictment of Thomas, who traded away a bundle to get him and who apparently has not effectively mentored him. Thomas did not see it that way. “I think that will come back,” Thomas said when asked about the way Curry once dominated offensively. The addition of Zach Randolph, who replaced Curry in the first quarter, and the emergence of David Lee have led to a reduced role for Curry, Thomas said. But Thomas would not say whether he would start Randolph or Curry or another player, for that matter in the Knicks’ next game, at home against the Bulls on Sunday.

LAWSUIT EXPECTED NEXT WEEK Nearly three months after announcing their intention to sue Madison Square Garden for sexual and racial discrimination, two former security supervisors expect to file a lawsuit next week in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, one of their lawyers said Thursday.

Jack Tuckner said the delay in filing was because of “administrative details” and “fact-checking.” He said, “We’re finalizing a draft of the complaint.”

The lawsuit would follow the federal jury verdict in October that held Isiah Thomas liable for sexual harassment against a former Knicks executive.

A settlement reached earlier this month compelled the Garden and its chairman, James L. Dolan, to pay $11.5 million in damages. On Wednesday, the Garden settled a sexual harassment lawsuit by a former captain of the Rangers City Skaters, a cheerleading squad.

The security supervisors who plan to sue the Garden and its parent company, Cablevision, are black women. At a news conference in October, one of them, Diane Henson, said she was the victim of retaliation after she complained about advancement prospects and lesser assignments for black women in security.