In his second day on the witness stand at a trial in federal court in Manhattan, Isiah Thomas denied allegations in a $10 million lawsuit that he repeatedly addressed the plaintiff, Anucha Browne Sanders, as "bitch" and a "ho" while they worked together at Madison Square Garden.

Degrading a woman that way "is never OK," he told the jury of five women and three men. "It is never appropriate."

Thomas added, "I've never cursed at Anucha. I've cursed around Anucha."

He also calmly downplayed a videotaped deposition in which he suggested he would be more troubled hearing a white man calling a black woman a "bitch" than if a black man said the same thing.

"It's very offensive for any man -- black, white, purple -- to call a woman a bitch," he said under questioning by one of his lawyers.