Geno Auriemma says lawsuit won't be Olympic distraction
FILE - In this file photo taken March 18, 2012, Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma speaks during an NCAA women's college basketball news conference in Bridgeport, Conn. A woman who works as an NBA security official has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit saying she was removed from an assignment to the London Olympics after she spurned an advance from Auriemma, coach of the U.S. women's team. Kelley Hardwick is suing Auriemma, the NBA and USA Basketball. The suit was filed Monday, June 11, 2012, in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. Credit: AP
CROMWELL, Conn. -- U.S. women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma says the employment discrimination lawsuit filed by a security official claiming she spurned his advances should not become a distraction for the U.S. Olympic team.
Auriemma made his first public appearance since the lawsuit was filed earlier this month, playing in the celebrity pro-am event Wednesday at the PGA's Travelers Championship.
Auriemma says if he was scared about the claims in the lawsuit, he would not have shown up to golf.
He also joked that pro wrestler Booker T, a playing partner Wednesday, might be a good person to take "on road trips where I need some kind of protection." NBA security official Kelly Hardwick alleges Auriemma tried to kiss her on a trip to Russia in 2009.
