Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Friday, July 18, 2008

Stacy Johnson-Klein, you just won a 9 million dollar settlement from Fresno State in a Title IX sexual harassment/retaliation case -- where are you going next?

Oklahoma.

Looks like Johnson-Klein has a new job.
According to the Associated Press, Johnson-Klein has been hired by the Oklahoma Cavalry to manage their minor league professional men's basketball team. The team is currently the Continental Basketball Association's defending champions. Johnson-Klein will be the league's second female general manager.

The former Fresno State coach is also said to be negotiating a movie deal.
Oiy, a movie deal?

I'd be intrigued to read SJ-K's narrative, since those who followed the whole friggin' Fresno State mess (and it ain't just SJ-K) realize that Ms. J-K probably ain't someone you'd instinctually want to champion. Remember Mechelle's piece?
The Fresno Bee has had the unenviable and laborious task of chronicling this mess, and I'd urge you to go to the newspaper's Web site and read its archived coverage. George Hostetter was the Bee's primary reporter for the Johnson-Klein trial and wrote fact-filled stories that also conveyed the undeniable sense of how soap-opera absurd some days of testimony were.

Even just a few stories will leave you with the feeling that "choosing sides" between Johnson-Klein and the school was akin to trying to untangle an unsavory knot of "which adults behaved badly more often."

Following the Fresno State fiasco for the last couple of years, I reached the conclusions that I would guess many people did. The school's athletic department had a poisonous culture of irresponsibility, sexism, lack of professionalism and bad decision-making. But … Johnson-Klein very likely might have been fired by any school in the country.