Source: https://theathletic.com/4794269/2023/08/21/knicks-raptors-lawsuit/?source=user_shared_article
> The lawsuit alleges Azotam, the Knicks’ former director of video, analytics, and player development, stole proprietary information — including “scouting reports, play frequency reports, a prep book, and a link to third-party licensed software” — and used it in an effort to help Rajaković acclimate to his first head coaching job. The suit says that in July, around the time Azotam told the Knicks he had a job offer from Toronto, he started to forward information from his Knicks email account to his personal Gmail account.
> The lawsuit, which the Knicks filed Monday, names 14 defendants: the Raptors, as well as MLSE; new Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković; Raptors player development coach Noah Lewis; 10 unnamed John Does; and the aforementioned former Knicks employee, Ikechukwu Azotam, who the lawsuit says took a job with Toronto this month. The Knicks allege that not only did Rajaković know about what was occurring but that he “recruited and used” the then-Knicks employee to help him build out the operations for his coaching staff.
> The suit alleges 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 say that those files were accessed more than 2,000 times by the defendants.
> The lawsuit also alleges that “Defendant Rajaković and the other Raptor Defendants recruited and used Azotam to serve as a mole within the Knicks organization to convey information that would assist the Raptors Defendants in trying to manage their team.”
> The Knicks allege that the Raptors defendants violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, that all defendants violated the Defend Trade Secrets Act and that they misappropriated trade secrets under NY common law, and that Azotam breached his contract, and that the Raptors defendants committed tortious interference with Azotam who was under contract. There are other counts and eight in all.
by UnbiasedNBAFan_
15 Comments
Has one team ever sued another for something like this before? This is unreal. Masai was right don’t put your phones down!
These guys want draft compensation acting like they actually know how to draft.
This is wild
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If this is proven to roll up to Darko he’s done and Masai might have to resign. You can’t sack a championship coach to usher in a culture reset and the guy you take forever to hire is proven to be corrupt before coaching his first NBA game.
I’m not even a Masai hater (though he has had some avoidable Ls post 2019). If you are the top man the buck stops with you
SOME MORE CONTEXT:
“The suit says that in July, around the time Azotam told the Knicks he had a job offer from Toronto, he started to forward information from his Knicks email account to his personal Gmail account.”
“The suit also names Lewis, an assistant video coordinator and player development coach with the Raptors, as a defendant.”
“He was an assistant coach for the Raptors 905 last year. The suit alleges Lewis, along with Rajaković, received five separate zip files from Azotam on Aug. 5.”
Azotam also emailed his personal email address several documents containing additional proprietary Knicks information,” the lawsuit reads.”He provided this material to the Raptors Defendants at their request, including: a. the prep book for the 2022-23 season includes confidential information related to the Knicks’ process for planning its season, including the template and organizational structure that the Knicks used to plan and assign scouting responsibilities. The suit alleges that Azotam illegally shared 3,358 video files with the Raptors.”
Here’s the key allegations:
>The Raptors Defendants directed Azotam’s actions and/or knowingly benefitedfrom Azotam’s wrongful acts.
>In or around June 2023, the Raptors began recruiting Azotam to join their organization.
>**To assist this novice coach in doing his job, Defendant Rajaković and the other Raptors Defendants conspired to use Azotam’s position as a current Knicks insider to funnel proprietary information to the Raptors to help them organize, plan, and structure the new coachingand video operations staff.**
>**In late July 2023, Azotam informed the Knicks that he had received an offer of employment from the Raptors. Around the same time, Azotam began secretly forwarding proprietary information from his Knicks email account to his personal Gmail account, which he then shared with the Raptors Defendants.**
>On August 15, 2023, the Knicks’ insider threat security team identified the theft,and Knicks’ records show that the stolen files were accessed over 2,000 times by the Raptors Defendants.
>**Defendant Rajaković and the other Raptor Defendants recruited and used Azotam to serve as a mole within the Knicks organization to convey information that would assist the Raptors Defendants in trying to manage their team.**
>**In early August 2023, Azotam began to illegally convert and misappropriate the Knicks’ confidential and proprietary data. This theft of data was done at the direction of Defendant Rajaković and the Raptors Defendants.**
>**Azotam also emailed his personal email address several documents containing additional proprietary Knicks information. He provided this material to the Raptors Defendants at their request…**
>In addition, on August 2, 2023, Azotam sent an email from his Knicks account… with the subject “SYNERGY LOGIN.” The email contained a link to synergysportstech dot com
>On August 11, 2023, Azotam sent two emails from his Knicks email address to his new Raptors email address… in In each case, the emails contained proprietary information with highly confidential material.
>Azotam shared a link to his Synergy account with the Raptors Defendants, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to Synergy Services, at the expense of and to the detriment of the Knicks organization.
>**On August 5, 2023, Azotam shared five separate zip files with Defendant Rajaković and Defendant Lewis through a Knicks-operated Sharepoint file-sharing website.**
>In total, Azotam illegally shared 3,358 video files.
>**The file share site was accessed over 2,000 times by the Raptors Defendants.**
>**Misusing his access to the Knicks database and servers, Azotam conspired with the Raptors Defendants to transfer thousands of files to the Raptors over the course of several days.**
I doubt Darko gets fired tbh
Lmaoo, we’re going into LolCow mode now aren’t we?
Also hail to Darko Rajaković’s Raptors career (2023-2023).Guess we won’t be waiting for Jokic after all 😂
In all seriousness though, this is terrible when it comes to our reputation on relations team to team.
I also worry that seeing this lawsuit might cause MLSE to go the draconian route and get rid of everyone including Masai (kinda under the , how do you not know what your guys are doing… cause I know he probably wasn’t aware of this in generals)
Anything that costs MLSE and Rogers corporation, the greediest corporation in Canada is bitter sweet. Even if they don’t get fined the lawyer fees will give them a big dent in there pocket.
Yo what is happening with our organization. Ugh.
rly guys? Of all the team to pull a recon mission.. y’all chose the Knicks?? WTF???
Yeeesh this is all so sloppy in terms of corporate espionage. Using your company email to send stuff to your personal email smh.
These guys deserve a public spanking just for being so stupid.
With the stories about how Rogers wanted Masai gone, and Larry was the only one to keep him around, I don’t know if he can survive another aggressive board battle…this might be enough of a PR disaster for Rogers to get his way.
They still mad about Bargnani