The New York Knicks are seeking over $10 million in damages from the Toronto Raptors as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging the Raptors, head coach Darko Rajakovic and former Knicks scouting employee Ikechukwu Azotam conspired to steal thousands of videos and other scouting secrets in July and August.
"The Knicks intend to prove at trial, their damages exceed $10 million," the Knicks wrote in a court filing Monday obtained by Sportsnet. The Knicks also intend to seek attorneys’ fees.
New York is also arguing that NBA commissioner Adam Silver shouldn't arbitrate the dispute largely because of his relationship with Raptors governor and minority owner of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, Larry Tanenbaum.
Tanenbaum has been chairman of the NBA's board of governors since 2017 and was re-elected for the position in 2022.
"In his capacity as Chairman, Tanenbaum serves as Silver’s boss and exercises control over and heavily influences Silver’s continued employment and salary," the Knicks said in Monday's filing.
"Among other things, Tanenbaum has been described as 'a close ally' of Commissioner Adam Silver. Silver himself described Tanenbaum as 'not just my boss as the chairman of the board of governors, but he's very much a role model in my life.' If Silver were to preside over the instant dispute, he would be arbitrating a case for his boss and ally."
The Raptors declined to comment Monday when reached out to by Sportsnet.
An MSG Sports spokesperson issued the following statement to Sportenst on Monday: “We were the victim of a theft of proprietary and confidential files, which is a clear violation of criminal and civil law, and we remain confident that the Court will decide in our favour in this matter.”
The original lawsuit filed by the Knicks on Aug. 21 claimed that secrets, including scouting and play frequency reports, along with a prep book and a link to valuable software, had been downloaded thousands of times by Raptors employees. The lawsuit also identified Azotam as the alleged mole. Since Aug. 2021, Azotam had directed the planning, organizing and distribution of all video scouting responsibilities for the Knicks' coaching staff.
The Knicks allege Rajakovic, hired as Toronto's new head coach in June, player development coach Noah Lewis and 10 unidentified Raptors employees received proprietary information and sometimes directed Azotam to misuse his access to Knicks information.
Rajaković, Lewis and 10 "unknown" Raptors employees were still listed as defendants on Monday's filing, along with the Raptors and MLSE.
On Oct. 16, MLSE filed a motion for dismissal, calling the lawsuit "baseless" and a "public relations stunt by the Knicks."
This was also when MLSE asked for the case to be put before an arbitrator.
"It has no business wasting judicial resources given the all-encompassing arbitration clause in the parties’ governing agreement," MLSE said in the October filing.
"Unless they reverse course and accept the jurisdiction of the NBA Commissioner as the parties agreed, the Knicks have chosen a forum that would likely not even be able to commence substantive proceedings until after the upcoming NBA season concludes and not ultimately resolve the dispute until 2025 at the earliest."
However, in Monday's filing, the Knicks claimed that because the NBA constitution has nothing to address the theft of intellectual property or the protection of a team's intellectual property, Silver shouldn't be allowed to rule on the matter.
"Contrary to Defendants' claims, this is not a dispute about basketball operations," the Knicks' filing on Monday said. "There is no nexus between the claims and the NBA Constitution — it is a dispute about the theft of trade secrets by a disloyal employee, a scenario not contemplated by the NBA Constitution. Trade secret misappropriation, breaches of contract, and tort claims are the types of issues routinely appearing before federal judges. We are unaware of the NBA Commissioner ever having handled something similar. As a matter of contract formation, the arbitration provision cannot be applied to Plaintiff's claims."
Raptors team president Masai Ujiri was asked about the lawsuit at a media day on Oct. 2.
"There has been one time a team has sued a team in the NBA,'' said Ujiri. "One time. Go figure."
— With filed from the Associated Press
