NEW YORK — Madison Square Garden president Steve Mills staunchly denied Wednesday that one of his employees complained to him about Isiah Thomas sexually harassing her.

Mills said that Anucha Browne Sanders never spoke to him about many of the claims she has made in court, including that Thomas asked her to go "off-site" with him or that he regularly called her a "bitch" or a "ho," until about a month before she was fired.

Mills said the only time Browne complained about going "off-site" was in reference to a meeting she had organized that Thomas didn't attend.

The only sexual harassment complaint Browne Sanders made, he said, was when she told him about a hug from Thomas. Mills said that he immediately responded to the complaint by calling Thomas and asking him to explain.

"She looked at me like she had daggers in her eyes," Thomas said during the call, according to Mills. Mills testified that he told Thomas not to hug her any more.

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"OK, cool," Thomas replied, according to Mills.

Mills said that Browne Sanders' complaints were mostly "turf issues" which he thought were "ridiculous."

"The only thing she complained to me about was business issues," Mills said. "There's always tension in that kind of relationship. I didn't find it unusual."

Mills denied Browne Sanders' claims that she regularly called or visited him in his office to complain about sexual harassment by Thomas, but acknowledged that Browne Sanders often criticized the coach and his staff.

"Anucha complained to me about a lot of things," he said.

Browne Sanders' $10 million suit accuses Thomas, a 12-time All-Star and president of the Knicks, of calling her profanities and making sexual overtures to her.

Browne Sanders, who was fired in January 2006 from her job as the Knicks' vice president of marketing and business operations, also accuses the Garden of firing her in retaliation for her complaints. Garden executives contend she was fired for poor job performance and tampering with the investigation into the sexual harassment claims.

On the stand, Mills, the first witness in the defense case, spoke in a booming voice as he was questioned by Garden lawyer Ronald Green. He portrayed Browne Sanders as an "abrasive" executive who continued to falter in her job performance and continually tried to secure her job through a contract.

Mills listed several instances in which he was disappointed with aspects of her work, including when she left unnecessary expenses in the budget, complained about her biography placement in a media guide, and regularly involved him in her business disputes with Thomas instead of learning how to handle them herself.

"At this point, I [was] tired of being an intermediary," he said.

Green asked Mills if his assessment of Browne Sanders had changed after the incidents he listed.

"I was having more concerns about the strategic planning ... the long-term ... how she was doing in the broader scope," Mills testified.

The same summer, Mills said, Browne Sanders had erred so badly during a budget meeting that Garden chairman James Dolan promptly dismissed employees.

"'You know what? Just stop talking,'" Dolan said to Browne Sanders during the meeting, according to Mills.

Afterward, Dolan met with Mills and Garden vice chairman Hank Ratner.

"'We should fire her right now,'" Ratner said, according to Mills.

Dolan recommended his executives work with her to salvage the situation. In a taped deposition shown in court Tuesday, however, Dolan claimed he later fired Browne Sanders without consulting anyone. (VIDEO)