The chairman of Madison Square Garden testified Tuesday that he fired one of his top executives after learning that she tried to get her subordinates to help build a sexual harassment case against New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas.

James Dolan told a jury in U.S. District Court that another company executive told him that MSG vice president Anucha Browne Sanders tampered with an internal investigation of her discrimination claims by meeting with her employees and trying to persuade them to support her.

He said he was also told before the January 2006 firing that she was demanding $6 million not to lodge a harassment complaint.