Alvin Xiong (10) | STAFF REPORTER
This past August, the Toronto Raptors, a few team members, and a former employee of the Knicks were all targets of legal action taken by the New York Knicks, alleging deliberate disclosure of private information. Specifically named, was Ikechukwu Azotam being a Knicks’ assistant video coordinator from 2020 to 2023. The Knicks filed a lawsuit alleging that after the Raptors started recruiting him in the summer of 2023, he sent thousands of private documents to them, including video scouting files, prepared in-game plays, and a prep book for the upcoming season.
The Knicks claimed that Ikechukwu had broken a confidentiality clause in his work contract and that Raptors members had “directed Azotam’s actions and knowingly benefited from Azotam’s wrongful acts.”
In his brief on Monday, the Raptors’ attorney wrote: “The Knicks’ conduct from the outset of this dispute leaves no doubt that their goal has been to elicit negative press attention against the Named Defendants rather than the pursuit of valid claims.” The claims were described as “false and overblown” by the Raptors’ attorney, who added that the “alleged ‘theft of data’ involved little more than publicly available information compiled through public sources readily accessible to all NBA Members.”
“There has been one time a team has sued another team in the NBA” said Raptors president, Masai Ujiri in reference to the lawsuit on October 2nd during the team’s media day. “Just once. Go figure.” During the same media day, recently hired Raptors head coach, Darko Rajaković gave a similar response to the complaint, saying, “I was surprised. I was shocked. I did not know where it was coming from and I cannot wait for this lawsuit to be over so everybody can find the truth.”
