According to the Associated Press, a man who worked as a driver for Eddy Curry is suing the New York Knicks center, alleging Curry owes him payment, sexually harassed him and berated him with racist slurs.
“I’m shocked, really,” said Curry. “He approached my friends a while back, trying to get money. I just never, ever thought it would go past what it did, which was just idle threats, money-or-else kind of stuff.”
Dave Kuchinsky alleges in the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New York that Curry owes him $98,000 in back pay and expenses, according to a story on the New York Post’s Web site and in the Post’s Tuesday edition. Newsday reported Tuesday that Kuchinsky is also seeking $5 million in compensatory damages.
Kuchinsky also accuses Curry of exposing himself and harassing the former driver and said Curry referred to his Jewish heritage in a derogatory way, calling him a “cracker,” “white slave,” “white devil” and “grandmaster of the KKK.”
Curry said he never made such comments.
“Everyone who knows me knows I’m not a racist. I’ve never made a comment like that, playing, or nothing,” Curry said. “Aside from the fact I wouldn’t do it because I’m not racist, I wouldn’t do it because I wouldn’t want someone to play with me like that. That’s incredible, man.”
Curry, 26, is in his eighth NBA season and fourth with the Knicks.
The lawsuit comes a little more than a year after former Knicks team president and coach Isiah Thomas was found by a jury to have sexually harassed former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders. MSG, the company that owns the Knicks, was ordered to pay $11.6 million in damages.
Curry portrayed the lawsuit against him as a desperate ploy for money by Kuchinsky, who was his employee for three years ending last October.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.