[Grange] Does the league have to step in and make a ruling for the whole thing to go away quickly? That seems about right. Let’s say it’s worth a six-figure fine and — maybe — a future second-round pick and call it a day.
by EarthWarping
@Toronto Raptors
11 Comments
Some of the key points in the article:
>**Each of them agreed that although what the Knicks are alleging to have happened isn’t nothing — there is a reason employees sign confidentiality agreements in the NBA — the question is whether the information Azotam was providing to the Raptors was actually exclusive to the Knicks and valuable in a significant way.**
>**The context then, is important. If it is borne out that what Azotam was doing on behalf of his new employer was really just pulling together information he’d gathered in his role with the Knicks as a way to prove his own value in what amounted to an extended job interview — “When guys want to come work for you, they sell their stuff,” said one league source.** “So, yeah, bring it. But don’t get caught” — well, maybe it’s not such a big deal.
>In a league where games are recorded from every angle at 25 frames per second, “a single game edit could be thousands of files,” said one source.
>**The consensus seems that it is more of a league matter that could have been handled internally.** And it escalated so quickly: The Knicks informed Raptors ownership (MLSE) of the issue only last Thursday. But even though MLSE pledged full cooperation, the Knicks went ahead and filed the lawsuit anyway.
>As for what now?
>Well, that’s the real question. For now, the league has refrained from commenting, but that will be the next step.
>Otherwise?
>**“From an employment law perspective, it’s a no-brainer,” said Matt Dewer, a Toronto-based lawyer with Duntrune Employment Lawyers. “If an employee is caught funnelling documents and strategy to a competitor, they would be fired, and efforts would be made to recover whatever damages were owed. It’s an open-and-shut case.”**
>But the Knicks’ challenge will be proving that the information was actually significant to their business success — these aren’t drug patents, but game film, after all — and what actual damages they have suffered, or what the Raptors gained from the process.
>**”It’s pretty telling that in the suit the Knicks left the damages they’re seeking as ‘TBD,'” added Dewar.** “The Knicks don’t even know themselves what damages they’ve suffered.”
>How this all gets resolved will be interesting. **The chances of it going to trial seem slim, and the chances of the Knicks winning don’t seem all that great either, given it would be hard to prove that the information taken was actually a trade secret and not just some well-organized scraping of existing public data.** Proving the Knicks suffered any great loss because of what Azotam did, regardless of his motivation, would be harder still.
>The consensus seems that it is more of a league matter that could have been handled internally. And it escalated so quickly: The Knicks informed Raptors ownership (MLSE) of the issue only last Thursday. But even though MLSE pledged full cooperation, the Knicks went ahead and filed the lawsuit anyway.
Sounds like everything I’ve ever read and heard about that insufferable douchebag Dolan.
Pure speculation but the most sensible explanation I’ve heard is the guy was just pulling the equivalent of his portfolio to show his new employer. “Here’s the type of stuff I can put together for you, take a look.” Point of interest not being any proprietary information, but the work as an employee’s portfolio.
I just can’t imagine this info from the Knicks is actually of interest to the Raptors to the point of anyone stealing and sharing it. Every team has loads of this stuff and…it’s the Knicks. MLSE is not lying awake at night trying to crack the Knicks code.
Jesus, Grange did not even attempt to hide who he was defending here.
Pretty garbage article.
I’m not being dismissive of this,” said another executive. “But people take stuff all the time (when they change jobs). Yes, it’s proprietary, but it’s usually their own product; work that they’ve done over time. So, without knowing the sensitivity level or what was taken or how egregious it was, it’s not something I’d care about that much.
“And timing matters, too. If it was mid-season and he was taking stuff for the current year, or the upcoming season, I might be more upset about it, but if it’s from the previous year, I don’t know if I’d be all that mad.”
Grange is serious with this quote?
Look the Knicks hate us because we dumped Bargs on them and then they missed out on GROAT so anything petty-ass Dolan can do to get back at us, he’s going to do it.
Masai should just come out and say, “if we were going to steal plays, why would we steal from Knicks”. That would be funny and I can see Masai saying that
Overall, it’s starting to become clear it was an overreaction.
The Knicks contacted raps on Thurs then file lawsuit on Monday.
That’s only 2 business days max. Someone jump thr gun
Its already old news as far as I’m concerned. Nothing bad is going to come of this.
The raps didn’t do nothing. Buddy did. We didn’t ask for nothing. Hey if he showed it he showed it but we didn’t ask him to do it.
James Dolan is a loser. I don’t care if he’s wealthy.
“The Knicks don’t even know themselves what damages they’ve suffered.”
You ever have a boss that just wants to fire you before you quit? You’ve probably never had that boss also be a petty billionaire.
