Lawyers for the Toronto Raptors called the Knicks’ lawsuit that alleges theft of proprietary information by an ex-Knick employee “baseless” and a “publicity stunt” in a motion filed on Monday.
The lawyers also asked the court to compel the Knicks to arbitrate all claims raised in the complaint and either dismiss the suit or stay all proceedings pending results of the arbitration.
Later Monday, an MSG Sports spokesperson said, “As we have previously stated, given the theft of proprietary and confidential files and clear violation of criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this to federal court and are confident the judicial system will agree.”
Last month, the Knicks filed suit against the Raptors and several members of their organization, including former Knicks employee Ikechukwu Azotam, alleging that Azotam “illegally took thousands of proprietary files” from the Knicks and disclosed it to members of the Raptors, including new head coach Darko Rajaković and other members of the coaching staff.
Rajakovic has publicly denied any wrongdoing.
In asking the court to consider arbitration, the Raptors lawyers argue that the matter should be adjudicated by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The lawyers cited the NBA Constitution, which states that the commissioner “shall have exclusive, full, complete, and final jurisdiction of any dispute involving two (2) or more Members of the Association.”
The Knicks say that the complaint falls outside of the commissioner’s purview because it deals with criminal matters of theft of proprietary information. A lawyer for the NBA informed the Knicks and Raptors that the league would allow the court to determine whether the issue should be adjudicated in federal court or before Silver.
The Knicks allege that Azotam, under the instruction of the Raptors, illegally procured confidential information such as play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files and materials (full information on the Knicks’ claims can be found here).
On Monday, lawyers for the defendants called the Knicks’ allegations “false and overblown.”
“At the appropriate time, and in the appropriate forum, the named defendants will demonstrate that the alleged ‘theft of data’ involved little more than publicly available information compiled through public sources readily accessible to all NBA Members,” the lawyers wrote in their motion on Monday. They added that the information allegedly taken from the Knicks and provided to Toronto could be compiled from game footage “accessible to all NBA teams (and, indeed, the general public). In other words, they were far from confidential, let alone trade secrets.”
The Knicks, who are seeking damages from the suit, alleged last month that Rajaković needed the information to prepare for his first season as an NBA head coach.
“As a first time NBA head coach, Defendant Rajaković would be expected to bring his own organizational structure and coaching method. Apparently, given his non-traditional path to his head coaching job, Defendant Rajaković did not have his own, so he chose to exploit the Knicks’ methods,” the suit reads.