Knicks and Raptors mutually agree to dismiss 2023 lawsuit
The New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors mutually and voluntarily agreed to dismiss a lawsuit filed in 2023 that most people around the league thought should never have been filed, a story broken by Baxter Holmes for ESPN. A spokesperson for the teams gave this statement to ESPN:
“The Knicks and [Raptors owner] Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment has withdrawn their respective claims and the matter has been resolved. The parties are focused on the future.”
The lawsuit involved something seen as commonplace in NBA circles (sources who had done similar work told NBC Sports at the time that it wasn’t a big deal and the lawsuit seemed “very James Dolan”). New York was seeking $10 million in damages from Toronto for the alleged “theft of trade secrets” when the Raptors hired New York’s director of video/analytics and an assistant player development coach, Ikechukwu Azotam. In the lawsuit, the Knicks alleged that the Raptors organization, at the behest of rookie coach Darko Rajakovic, took more than 3,000 confidential and proprietary files, including video scouting files and game attendance numbers. Part of the Knicks’ argument was that Rajakovic didn’t have the background to build a team structure, so they stole him from New York. This was despite the fact that Rajakovic had been a legendary coach in Serbia, was head coach of the G-League’s Tulsa 66ers and was a well-known player development assistant with the Thunder, Suns and Grizzlies.
Toronto’s first counterargument was that this should be decided by the NBA league office and commissioner Adam Silver, not the courts. Toronto addressed the NBA’s general counsel and pointed out that the NBA’s constitution (Article 24, Bylaws “D”) states: “The Commissioner shall have exclusive, full, complete and final jurisdiction over any dispute involving two (2) or more members of the Association.” Dolan, who has had a long-running feud with Silver, didn’t think the commissioner would be an impartial arbiter of the situation.
Ultimately, both sides simply decided to drop the issue and move on.