Standing up for the working woman

“Frank,” I said. “What would you do if I sexually harassed a woman to the point a jury...”

But that’s as far as I got.

“Gallo,” Keegan said. “I’d fire your ass.”

What about if a jury awarded my victim $11.6 million in damages?

“I’d take it out of your paycheck,” Keegan declared.

Frank made it clear to me: It’s probably not a good idea for New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas to send him his resume.

Not that Thomas would. He must be perfectly happy making millions of dollars every year working in a fantasy land, where a man can call a female co-worker a “bitch” and “ho” and still have a job and not be punished.

On Tuesday, a New York jury ordered Madison Square Garden and chairman James Dolan to pay $11.6 million to Anucha Browne Sanders, the team’s former vice president of marketing, after determining she had been sexually harassed by Thomas, who acted on behalf of Madison Square Garden.

Get this: Thomas will not have to pay Browne Sanders a penny. But Madison Square Garden owes the 44-year-old married mother of three $6 million for having a hostile work environment and $2.6 million for retaliation. Dolan owes Browne Sanders $3 million for the harassment she endured before he fired her from a job that paid her $260,000 annually.

Why do you care? You should.

But first, please tell me, what’s the bigger story here: Browne Sanders rewarded for fighting he employer on behalf of “every working woman in America,” or that a man can refer to a woman with names mostly found in a Ludacris song and keep his job.

Is this a bigger win for women or a bigger loss? And honestly, considering all it cost the Knicks was a professional team’s pocket change — don’t tell me their attendance is going to suffer as a direct result of this lawsuit — is it a big win for men?

What’s your answer? Go head and pick one, and I’ll make my selection — and we could argue until New York Jets coach Eric Mangini and New England coach Bill Belichick exchange Christmas cards and neither of us would be wrong. Or right.

You think this is progression? I call it regression.

Let’s review: In January 2000, Atlanta Braves reliever John Rocker made statements viewed as racist, sexist and anti-gay in a Sports Illustrated article. He became a symbol of hate, especially in a city like Atlanta, which at times has been racially divided, and was despised by many Atlantans as if he were the second coming of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. A year later, Rocker was traded to Cleveland.

In April of this year, Don Imus, a famous radio personality, referred to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos,” during his morning talk show and was crucified by the national media and fired by CBS.

But when Thomas treats a woman like she’s a bikini-clad vixen in a rap video, it doesn’t cost him a dime. And by the way, Dolan, whose company owns Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers, reportedly has a net worth of $2.1 billion and makes about $10 million annually.

What’s next? It’s okay to tell a woman her goal in life should be to become barefoot and pregnant and make sure to have her man’s dinner waiting for him when he arrives home?

I wonder how that would go over if I said that to the about 50 women who work in our office.

Now, we have good ol’ Isiah Thomas. He makes derogatory comments about women and the only thing that takes a hit is image? He doesn’t even get penalized by the NBA? What would happen if Allen Iverson — wait, he already did it in his rap song — or Ron Artest used those words? You think David Stern would keep his mouth shut?

Remember, Stern is the same guy who wants to change the NBA’s image from a game predominantly played by millionaire thugs who dress more like rappers and tend to get arrested. He wants it to be family entertainment, he wants players to be family-friendly icons like LeBron James and Kevin Garnett.

I don’t have a degree in public relations. But if you want to convince soccer moms to bring their sons and daughters to an NBA game, it’s probably not a good idea to let the coach of one of your highest-profile franchises refer to women using the same words reserved for a female dog and a gardening tool.

Simple solution: Let Browne Sanders say Donald Trump’s favorite words to Thomas: You’re fired.