SUSAN WATTS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Former NBA security guard Warren Glover says he was fired for reporting sexual harassment against women in the workplace.
A Manhattan judge, in a sharply-worded Friday decision, whistled the NBA for its woman-bashing culture.
The ruling came in the case of ex-NBA security director Warren Glover, who claims he was fired in 2011 by league officials in retaliation for his whistle-blowing efforts about sexual harassment.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings, in her 17-page decision, ripped the NBA for its use of offensive photos of females shown to incoming rookies at an orientation session.
One picture featured a near-naked, morbidly obese woman atop a man beneath the headline “Reason Not to Get Drunk,” while the other had the head of Osama bin Laden Photoshopped atop the bodies of three women.
OFFICIAL COURT EVIDENCE
One PowerPoint slide, entitled “Reason Not To Get Drunk,” features an obese woman lying atop another person.
“I wish these were brains,” read the words across the chest of one of the women.
Billings was not amused: “The photographs ... both demean women and represent a culture of sexual harassment and misogyny.” The judge, over the league’s objections, made the photos public.
Glover, a retired NYPD lieutenant commander, spent a decade working for the NBA. The ruling comes before Glover’s lawyers head into court this coming Thursday to request summary judgement — a declaration of victory without a trial.
OFFICIAL COURT EVIDENCE
In an apparent conflation of women and terrorism, another slide featured the head of Osama bin Laden Photoshopped onto three females.
The judge also approved the release of depositions from former NBA officials, including co-defendant Bernard Tolbert. The former FBI field officer left the NBA to mount an unsuccessful 2013 run for mayor of Buffalo.
Glover’s attorney, Randolph McLaughlin, hailed the ruling for its exposure of NBA hypocrisy. The league disciplines team owners and players for sexual harassment while ignoring its own indiscretions.
“The mothership is committing gross violations of the law,” he said. “Now the whole world can see it.”
WARD, JESSE - FREELANCE NYDN/WARD, JESSE - FREELANCE NYDN
Anucha Browne Sanders was awarded $11.6 million in 2007 after accusing then-Knicks coach Isiah Thomas of sexual harassment.
Glover was canned from his $117,000-a-year job after supporting female NBA employees who complained about harassment — and then testifying on behalf of former NBA worker Annette Smith.
She quit her NBA job in disgust after the league forced her to use one of the offending photos in a power point presentation for the new players.
Billings wrote that “the frequency, the pervasiveness and severity” of complaints about offensive conduct by the NBA could support Glover’s allegations.
DAVID DUPREY/AP
Depositions from ex-NBA official, and former FBI agent Bernard Tolbert, were ordered to be released
The lawsuit named the league, along with Glover’s ex-boss Tolbert and two other male NBA employees.
The ruling noted that the NBA charged Glover only sought to go public with the pictures “to pressure defendants to settle the action.” Glover said his case was dependent in part on lifting any confidentiality restrictions.
The Knicks were hammered on similar charges in Oct. 2007 by a Manhattan jury’s award of $11.6 million to former executive Anucha Browne Sanders after she complained of sexual harassment — and a punitive firing.
There was no immediate comment from the NBA
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