NY- SHE couldn't even cry.

Sometimes, when her abuse at the hands of Isiah Thomas became too much to bear, Anucha Browne Sanders felt herself losing control.

But before she allowed herself to do something as natural as shed tears, Sanders had to make sure she first ran into the ladies' room.

"I had to keep that private," Sanders was telling me yesterday.

"I went out of the office, crying," she said, looking a tad embarrassed by the human display of emotion. "I was in a position where I had to uphold a professional demeanor."

And as she speaks, she tries to hold on. But Sanders looks badly as if she wants to cry again.

She doesn't.

She'll make him cry, instead.

Until last week, Sanders, 43, was the No. 2 executive for the New York Knicks basketball team. Now, she's socking the male-controlled world of professional sports with a lawsuit that claims team President Isiah Thomas engaged in a campaign of sexual harassment and terror.

His weapons of choice, she says, were calling her a "f- - -ing bitch" and a "ho." And he demanded that the married mother of three sleep with him, she says.

She didn't.

Instead, she complained. And she was fired.

Since the lawsuit was filed Tuesday, the Knicks have responded in knee-jerk fashion, waging a new and even more vicious reign of terror against Sanders. While declining to respond to her specific allegations, the team instead says the now ex-executive wants to extort money with bogus claims.

"That never happened," Sanders tells me simply.

The Knicks say she wanted $6 million. The team does not explain why a woman who's spent a career among the jet set chose this moment as her golden opportunity.

"It's just not true!" she insists. Her voice is soft. But she is adamant. "I've worked in a space with celebrities and world-class athletes. I've always enjoyed working in the background.

"That is just an example of them deflecting blame."

We are sitting in the office of Sanders' lawyers, Kevin Mitzer and Anne Vladek, because it's the only place that she feels safe to talk.

"They surrounded my house. They took my mail!" she said, but it's unclear who did all these things. One thing is clear: She's shaken.

And she's still in shock.

"I was fired after I made a complaint," she told me. It is a line she will repeat, as if still trying to make sense of the events of the past week.

Last week marked the end of a 20-year career that made Sanders one of the top-ranked women in professional sports. I can't say with absolute certainty that her claims have merit.

But I cannot imagine that any sane human would throw away a career that took her out of Flatbush, Brooklyn, and into the board room and around the world - for a few crummy bucks.

"They want this to be about money. Well, I was a high-paid executive."

Was. Until Thomas came along.

Anucha Browne grew up tall and determined in Brooklyn. Standing 6-foot-1, she played basketball for Northwestern University. When she graduated, she got a master's degree in marketing at Florida State.

"Constantly, I'm the only woman in a male-dominated sports environment. I was one of two black women in my [parochial] high school. I've been the only one for so long.

"I always remind people that there was a day that there were no women at all. That's how I keep the chip off my shoulder - by focusing on the fact that I'm breaking ground." In her mind, being the only woman and only African-American in a room became a gift.

"I've always treated it as an opportunity."

While in Australia for the Olympics in 2000, working on behalf of IBM, Sanders was contacted by the Knicks about taking a position as vice president of marketing.

"It was a dream come true," she says. "Everyone knew me as the 'baller coming out of Brooklyn.' The Knicks are one of the most storied franchises. And here I was, managing the brand!"

A year and a half later, she was promoted to senior vice president of marketing and business operations - second only to the team's president.

Then, in December 2003, Isiah Thomas arrived.

"From the point that Isiah came on board, things became very strained," she says.

She says Thomas could not handle working with a woman. She claims she was isolated professionally, cursed at. And worse - Thomas encouraged others, particularly Knicks star Stephon Marbury, to call her a "black bitch."

What irony. A woman who has crossed gender and race lines for decades should be taunted about her sex and skin color.

In her suit, she alleges that Thomas had a plan for winning games. He would get the opposing team to visit strip clubs and get soused the night before.

When things got intolerable, she complained to top brass at Madison Square Garden, which owns the Knicks.

She was put on an unwanted vacation while her claims were "investigated." But first, she says, the Garden's chief operating officer, Steve Mills, warned her that Thomas would respond by spreading a damaging rumor about her.

And still, she expected the team would do the right thing.

"I expected to have them go back and manage the situation," she said.

"I thought they'd fix it."

Instead, the team called her lawyer. He then had to call her at home, to tell her she was fired.

An MSG spokesman repeated a statement by lawyer Ron Green who maintains, "We believe she's seeking a financial windfall."

He said Sanders was fired for "inability to fulfill her professional responsibilities."

Sanders replies, "I still don't understand under what grounds they fired me."

If not for the love and support of her husband of 16 years and her kids - ages 15, 12 and 8 - Sanders does not know how she could have gotten by.

"You know, I put a lot of time and a lot of energy into my career. I sacrificed. Missing appointments with my kids. Missing important times.

"I figured it would come back to my children positively because I was successful."

Sanders has lately made up for lost time by doing the Mom things she's missed - taking the kids to school and to sports practice. It helps.

"I'm outraged!" She repeats the phrase like a mantra. "That I could make a complaint, and the reaction is they could come back and fire me. I made a complaint about sexual harassment and gender discrimination and a hostile work environment. And they fired me."

She is angry. She still wants her job back.

It keeps her from crying.