Knicks, Raptors Agree To Voluntarily Dismiss 2023 Lawsuit

The New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors agreed to voluntarily dismiss a 2023 lawsuit involving the alleged theft of thousands of confidential files, according to a legal filing in the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Knicks Were Suing Raptors For More Than $10 Million

Spokespersons representing the teams issued this statement to ESPN: “The Knicks and [Raptors owner] Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment withdrew their respective claims and the matter is resolved. The Parties are focused on the future.”

Per The Athletic’s Eric Koreen and Mike Vorkunov, the lawsuit alleged that Ikechukwu Azotam, a former Knicks employee who joined the Raptors in the summer 2023, stole proprietary information and took it with him to his new Raptors job.

The Raptors, Azotam, Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic, player development coach Noah Lewis, and 10 “unknown” employees were listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Knicks were suing for more than $10 million in damages. The team alleged that the Raptors poached Azotam, who was hired by New York in 2020, and ordered him to provide internal information after Toronto hired him.

In addition, the proprietary information — including “scouting reports, play frequency reports, a prep book and a link to third-party licensed software” — was allegedly used to help Rajakovic adapt to his first NBA head coaching job.

Raptors Allegedly Told Azotam To Misuse Knicks’ Synergy Sports Account

The lawsuit said that in July 2023, around the time Azotam told the Knicks he had a job offer from Toronto, he “started forwarding information from his Knicks email account to his personal Gmail account,” per Koreen and Vorkunov.

The suit also alleged that the Raptors defendants directed Azotam to “misuse” his access to the Knicks’ Synergy Sports account to create and transfer more than 3,000 files with film and data, including 3,358 video files.

The Knicks discovered his transfer on Aug. 15 and said that those files were accessed more than 2,000 times by the defendants. They claim the Raptors were trying to “organize, plan, and structure the new coaching and video operations staff,” the August 2023 complaint stated.

In an October 2023 court filing, the Raptors called the Knicks’ allegations “baseless” and a “public relations stunt,” according to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.

The Raptors argued that the “alleged ‘theft of data’ involved little more than publicly available information compiled through public sources readily accessible to all NBA Members.”

The two sides ultimately ended up in arbitration hearings with the NBA this summer after a judge’s ruling. The case has been voluntarily dismissed with prejudice.