It’s pretty rare when a sexual harassment case actually comes to trial, and rarer still when a case comes to trial involving prominent, well-known businesspeople with big reputations at stake.

That’s what makes Tuesday’s sexual harassment jury verdict against the NBA’s New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden and coach Isiah Thomas all the more amazing. As The New York Times reported this morning, “[Thomas’] employer, Madison Square Garden, has been ordered to pay $11.6 million in punitive damages to Anucha Browne Sanders, the former Knicks executive who accused Thomas of creating a hostile work environment.”

Most businesses would have settled this case long before now, and for good reason: No executive wants bad behavior in their workplace dragged through the courts for all to see. But the business of professional sports seems to be a world unto itself, where actions that would embarrass and seriously penalize most companies are shrugged off with hardly any consequence.

If you don’t think that’s true, here’s a little bit more from the Times: “The [sexual harassment] case cast Thomas as a profane, verbally abusive bully, and the Garden as an anything-goes boys club that permitted lecherous behavior and shrugged when an intern had sex with the team’s star player, Stephon Marbury.”

Even more amazing is this: Most managers who were hit with a million-dollar sexual harassment verdict would be quickly shown the door. Well, not in this case. Again, as the Times put it: “Both Thomas and [Madison Square] Garden announced plans to file an appeal, which will sustain the story for months to come. … It also appears that Thomas, despite the verdict, will retain all [his] duties for the foreseeable future. Although Garden officials declined to comment Tuesday, they quickly and quietly spread the word that James L. Dolan, the Garden chairman, has no intention of firing Thomas. Thomas has also told friends that his jobs, as coach and president, are secure.”

There’s still more to come. The woman who was harassed “has asked for an additional $9.6 million in compensatory damages,” according to the Times, “which the judge will decide on in the coming weeks.”

How many businesses in America would put up with an executive who might saddle them with a $20 million-plus sexual harassment verdict? Very few, I suspect. Yes, professional sports are a big-money business that seems immune from the normal workplace rules everyone else has to live by, but even professional sports will eventually figure out that paying millions for sexual harassment is not a sustainable business proposition.