Nets’ Carter opts out

Vince Carter opted out of the final year of a contract with the New Jersey Nets that would have paid the All-Star guard $16.3 million this coming season.

Nets President Rod Thorn said Saturday the team was informed Friday that Carter would test the free-agent market, but he remained optimistic the 30-year-old swingman would return next season.

“Unless he’s changed his mind, we’re hoping he’s back,” Thorn told the Associated Press in a phone interview. “He said he wants to return, and we’ve always said we wanted him back.”

The two sides have talked about a contract for the last month, and they are close to an agreement on a four-year deal worth more than $60 million.

Any new contract could not be signed until July 11. If the two sides reach an agreement, Thorn said the team is prohibited from announcing the contract until then.

Carter averaged team highs of 25.2 points in the regular season and 22.3 for the postseason.

If there is a knock on Carter, who will be entering his 10th season, it’s his failure to step up in the playoffs. He shot less than 40% from the field in the postseason while making several key mistakes.

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A former New York Knicks executive who is suing President and Coach Isiah Thomas for sexual harassment alleged in court papers that Thomas urged a cheerleader to flirt with referees, and guard Stephon Marbury cursed at her, according to newspaper reports Saturday.

Anucha Browne Sanders, a former senior vice president of marketing and business operations, filed documents to answer the Knicks’ attempt to have her lawsuit dismissed.

In the papers, which were unsealed Friday, Browne Sanders alleges cheerleader Petra Pope told her Thomas encouraged Pope to flirt with officials before a game against the Nets in 2004, the New York Daily News reported.

“What she told me was that Isiah asked her to go into the referees’ locker room and make them happy,” Browne Sanders testified.

Sanders said Marbury directed an obscenity at her after she complained that the player’s cousin -- who was also employed by the team -- had made graphic sexual comments to her staff.

Marbury, in a January deposition, acknowledged calling Browne Sanders a derogatory name, according to the New York Post. Thomas and Madison Square Garden are listed as the defendants in the lawsuit, but not Marbury.