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You realize what's coming next, don't you? It's so obvious, this should take no time at all to figure it out.

Yes, Sally Anthony is going to call out Jerry Jones, Danny Snyder, George Steinbrenner, Larry Miller, every meddlesome owner in sports and put it to them all clearly.

"Which one of you sissy-pants men wants an ass-kicking? Come on, you big girl's blouses. Put your noses where your money is. Right now, you and me. One at a time, or all at once. Take your whippins from someone who can bring 'em. 'Cause I'm just the broad to do it."

By now, you all know about Big Sally, the co-owner of the Nashville Rhythm of the American Basketball Association. She hired Ashley McElhiney to become the first female coach of a men's professional team, and McElhiney built a team with an 18-7 record.

The Atlanta Hawks should be so open-minded.

But McElhiney also thought that being the coach meant being the coach, and that's when she found herself on the wrong side of Big Sally's temper.

McElhiney was playing Matt Freije, the former Vanderbilt star making $10,000 on a two-game contract between NBA gigs, the other night when Sal came rushing onto the floor demanding that she bench Freije. McElhiney, correctly deducing in only a split second that Big Sally was nuts and ignored her. For that, McElhiney was summarily fired after the game for behaving like a coach rather than a temp worker in a sweatshop.

Now we could make a lot of wacky jokes about an owner who has plainly confused her place in the athletic food chain, or whose knowledge of the game could be matched by a decorative palm, or any other possibilities.

But they would all miss the point. This is a woman who takes no guff even from a productive employee, and would rather exercise her authority at the risk of looking like an ass than absorb an insult of this magnitude.

This puts her in a fairly select group of owners, and her gender should not prevent her from access to the business' best billionaire bullies.

I mean, if she can de-leg a coach who is succeeding, why stand on such a small stage when there are higher power trips to make?

God, does this sound like a Fox show to you, too?

She is plainly in better shape than Miller, the Utah Jazz owner who has had his share of set-tos with Karl Malone, who is a whole lot bigger than McElhiney.

She is younger than Steinbrenner.

She is less likely to stand on ceremony than Snyder and Jones, both of whom wear suits and fire their coaches in private.

She is just as likely to swear at Al Davis as the other way around.

She dresses like Mark Cuban, has an equally creative bent (she did hire a woman, after all), but seems to lack the sense of humor required to be real gadfly.

And frankly, she would post up on David Stern without even an introduction. This is a lady who doesn't even seem to like taking "yes" for an answer.

In fairness, maybe Big Sally was worried that Freije's time with the New Orleans Hornets could contaminate her fragile and poorly paid roster. Maybe she's a Tennessee booster and thinks Vanderbilt kids are all sniveling bookworms.

Either way, she did not call the P.R. director over to prepare a statement, or book a hotel room for a press conference. She dropped the hammer right then and there, and there is a boldness in that behavior that nearly negates the fact that she seems like a four-square whack job.

Frankly, the ABA is too small a stage for her. I'm thinking maybe she could be Arturo Gatti's next manager.

If Gatti has the stones, that is.

Ray Ratto is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle and a regular contributor to ESPN.com