NEW YORK — Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas denied Wednesday that he ever called the woman accusing him of sexual harassment offensive names, and tried to polish an image tarnished during the three-week trial.

The 12-time NBA All-Star repeatedly flashed a smile at the jury as he calmly answered questions from his lawyer, Kathleen Bogas, about former Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders' allegations against him.

"I've never cursed at Anucha. I've probably cursed around her," Thomas said in his second day on the stand. "I could have said f---. As a matter of fact, I'm sure I've said f---. But I've never directed a swear word at Anucha."

Thomas also said the words he is accused of using, including "bitch" and "ho," are "highly offensive," and he would never use them in the office.

"It is never OK, it's never acceptable and it's always inappropriate," Thomas said.

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He got a star's reception. The jurors barely took their eyes off him as he spoke, and so many spectators tried to crowd into the courtroom that court officers had to escort some out. Those who couldn't fit were taken to another room, where they could watch a simulcast of the trial.

Browne Sanders, who was the Knicks' vice president of marketing and business operations before she was fired in 2006, is asking for $10 million from Thomas and Madison Square Garden.

She accuses the Garden of firing her when she complained about the treatment. Garden executives claim she was fired for poor performance and for tampering with their investigation into her claims.

Thomas, sharply dressed in a navy blue pinstriped suit and a blue striped tie, took issue with a clip of a videotaped deposition shown during the trial and testimony from Browne Sanders that presented an image of him as, at the least, racially insensitive.

During the portion of the deposition shown during the trial, Thomas said he found it more offensive for a white man to call a black woman a bitch than it would be for a black man to do so.

Thomas said Wednesday that the clip was only a small portion of his seven-hour deposition, and did not give the context for the remark.

"I don't think it's appropriate, and it's very offensive for any man — black, white, green or purple — to call any woman a bitch," he said.

The Hall-of-Famer also contradicted Browne Sanders' claims that he said he didn't give a "f--- about these white people" during a conversation with her about season ticket holders.

Season ticket holders are the "backbone of how we all make a living," so he would never have said anything like that, Thomas said.

He added that his family has nieces and nephews who are of mixed race, so he would never say anything derogatory about whites.

Thomas contradicted nearly every statement Browne Sanders made during the trial about him and their interaction. He said that, during the two years they worked with each other, they had spent only about three hours total together.

He disputed Browne Sanders' account of a meeting she had with Thomas and Madison Square Garden President Steve Mills, when she said he cursed at her when Mills stepped out of the office. Thomas said he never cursed at her and didn't even remember Mills leaving the office.

He also denied ever saying he loved Browne Sanders, was attracted to her or that she was "easy on the eyes," a phrase he said he had never used.

He said he wouldn't have compared their relationship to that of the two characters in the movie "Love and Basketball," as Browne Sanders said he did after a holiday party, because he had seen only "bits and pieces" of the movie and didn't really know what it was about.

The film is about two basketball players who at first hate each other but eventually fall in love.

In a short rebuttal case, Browne Sanders' lawyer Kevin Mintzer called his client to the stand, and asked her about specific points on which other witnesses had contradicted her.

Browne Sanders denied using her power as a boss to pressure subordinate Karin Buchholz to corroborate her allegations of harassment, as Buchholz had said she did.

She directly contradicted Buchholz's claim that Browne Sanders told her what to tell investigators and forced her to go to a lawyer with her. Instead, Browne Sanders said, it was Buchholz who tracked down a lawyer and asked Browne Sanders to go with her.

Several Garden executives who testified also misrepresented a meeting she had with Mills months before she was fired, she said. They said Browne Sanders told her boss she "couldn't take it" and was planning to leave the company.

"I said I couldn't work under those conditions," she said. "I don't see that as a resignation by any stretch of the means."

Lawyers for Browne Sanders, Thomas and the Garden will deliver their closing arguments Thursday. The jury is expected to begin deliberations in the afternoon.