Mike Anderson is seeking $45.6 million dollars from St. John’s after they unceremoniously fired him in March.
Anderson, 63, whom St. John’s fired “for cause” in an effort to avoid paying him the money left on his deal, had been planning to fight the decision in the days after losing his job.
ESPN that Anderson’s attorney, John Singer of Singer Deutsch, filed a “notice of arbitration” seeking the $11.4 million remaining on his contract, plus $34.2 million in “punitive” damages.
St. John’s replaced Anderson with 70-year-old Rick Pitino.
Anderson claimed in the suit that St. John’s was already having serious talks with Pitino when he was fired, that he continued to represent the program in a “first class manner” after signing a new deal in 2021 and that firing him for cause was part of a strategy focusing “on marshaling and amalgamating enough assets” to pay Pitino.
“St. John’s manufactured out of whole cloth its preposterous ‘for cause’ termination of Mr. Anderson’s employment with the sole purpose of attempting to extricate the University from its $11.4 million ironclad contractual obligation to Mr. Anderson, specifically so that it could otherwise divert those funds to Pitino,” the filing claimed.
“We dispute the wildly inaccurate claims being reported in the media and will vigorously defend those claims in arbitration,” St. John’s said in a statement in response to the arbitration filing.
When the university fired Anderson, the coach was sent a notice of termination that alleged a “failure to perform your duties and responsibilities in a manner that reflected positively on St. John’s University … in actions [that] brought serious discredit” to St. John’s, plus a “failure to appropriately supervise and communicate with your assistant coaches.”
Sources told The Post’s Zach Braziller that the culture under Anderson in recent years had deteriorated significantly.
There were repeated disciplinary issues and two players — Rafael Pinzon and Andre Curbelꦡo —🍸 were suspended this past season.
At his introductory press conference, Rick Pitino said he didn’t get positive reviews of many of the players in the program.
Only two players — J💦oel Soriano🃏 and Drissa Traore — remain part of the roster.