The Toronto Raptors have been involved in a legal matter that has seen the New York Knicks sue them and accuse the team of stealing proprietary information such as video reports and prep books.
The Knicks claim that Ike Azotam, a former team employee who left to join Toronto stole thousands of team files with Toronto benefitting from it.
The Knicks claim the Raptors employee stole proprietary information, meanwhile Toronto seems less concerned with what’s going on.
Masai Ujiri downplayed the whole situation too at Media day.
Per Baxter Holmes of ESPN, the Raptors are preparing to countersue the Knicks for defamation, as they believe the Knicks have committed a “clear violation of criminal and civil law.” This on-going court battle doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon:
NEWS: Raptors fire back at Knicks in a new court filing obtained by ESPN, hinting at defamation countersuit. https://t.co/opPqFkb30l
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) December 12, 2023
The Knicks referenced Adam Silver’s relationship with Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum as a potential conflict of interest. The Raptors responded to that point:
“The NBA Commissioner is not biased and he is the best person to adjudicate this dispute because of his ability to identify what, if any, information is confidential and proprietary such that its misuse may harm a Member like the Knicks. Akin to a coach bemoaning an injury to his star player even before the game, the Knicks seek to excuse their inevitable loss on the merits by attacking the integrity of the NBA Commissioner.”
A major point the Raptors made throughout the lawsuit is that the alleged information that Azotam took wasn’t confidential:
“If the Knicks were genuinely concerned that there had been misuse of confidential and proprietary information, they would have accepted the Raptors’ invitation to cooperate with the Knicks in undertaking an immediate and thorough investigation of the Knicks’ allegations.”
With Toronto looking to fire back and countersue, it appears that this legal matter will likely drag on.
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