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_
40 Comments
They broke the code..Steve Kerr
Imagine having to steal from NYK lmao
Pov: Italy at world war 2
>The suit alleges Lewis, along with Rajaković, received five separate zip files from Azotam on Aug. 5.
in trivial speculation — im going to venture and say that Azotam didn’t zip the files himself prior to emailing them over — now that it’s known it was his Gmail account, Gmail probably auto-converted the thousands of video files into zip files automatically as he tried to send them
we really gonna fire our whole coaching staff huh. who’s gonna coach? the Raptors mascot?
Is any of this proprietary information when it’s literally free to watch?
The Raptors need Knicks’ info so bad for some reason haha
CCP of the NBA
How is that on the raptors unless they asked this employee to do so
Edit-clearly I didn’t read
Finally some NBA drama I can enjoy
If it’s true, Darko’s going to be forced out
Pot meet Kettle, hope you fall in love.
IP breach of contract/dispute and lawsuit is GG
Edit: question is – did the stolen IP give the Raptors an unfair advantage
> “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 lawsuit claims.
looool
Love to see Masai and the FO explain this one. Have they done enough due diligence before hiring Darko if this was the case? Raps FO have been dropping a lot of balls lately. Not encouraging.
bruh get this man some protonmail
How does this affect Lebron’s legacy?
Since Rajakovic is directly involved it looks like if these allegations are sustained that it’s likely he’ll be suspended indefinitely. We’ll see if the Raps suspend/place him on leave now and get out ahead of an NBA move and for the PR points while the investigation is ongoing. Masai’s contract makes firing him a bit more of an open question. He’s making a huge chunk of cash on a deal signed in 2021, but what is clear is that he has lost his fastball in recent seasons, and the Raptors are now one of the worst run teams in the league in my eyes.
We’ve seen some bad tampering scandals but this is up there with one of the worst and tampering to this level has led to prison time in other cases, including the Cardinals baseball team recently.
Between this, the wildfires and LTT drama, it’s been a pretty rough month for Canada.
you’re like 3 hours late lmao
Obviously I care more about this as a Knicks fan, but this seems like a real bad look for Raps org. Massive penalties incoming if these things are proven true
Poverty franchise doing too much 😑
> and used it in an effort to help Rajaković acclimate to his first head coaching job.
If this is all because he was nervous about his first big job, I’m gonna die laughing at the stupidity of this
Is MSG going to ban all members of the Raptors organization from entering MSG like they do so many law firms?
Still salty about Bargnani.
If they wanted to steal information, why the knicks lol.
Of all the teams to steal from Darko had to choose the Knicks? Come on man, if you are going to cheat, cheat from the good teams.
For a similar case, the Cardinals were found stealing scouting from the Astros back in 2017. The main thief for a 46 month prison term, the Cardinals game the Astros $2m, and they lost 2 picks up the Astros as well. The guy who stole was also permanently banned from baseball.
So Darko and the guys involved, if proven true, might get something similar.
Lol, if this is true Rajakovic just speedran an nba head coaching career. Also, if you are going to do something this absolutely stupid why would you not at least try it with one of the top organizations in the league?
Relegate the raptors to the g league and move up the Delaware blue coats
Masai saw an email of “Knicks” Strategy”and marked it as junk.
James Dolan is one of the pettiest owners in the league. He’s banned fans for talking shit. He’s banned Charles Oakley for talking shit. He won’t even let attorneys that are involved in litigation against MSG in to the arena (even if they are paying customers).
Dolan will absolutely draw blood from this litigation, he’s not going to settle, imo it will be going before a judge/jury.
Additionally, I would be shocked if he’s not constantly hounding the NBA so that the Raptor’s don’t just get a slap on the wrist.
Dang these are serious allegations. We’ll see how this plays out
Will this be the last straw that allows us to finally declare war on Canada?
Imagine Snitching, couldn’t be me
New York snitching is crazy
Finally something that doesn’t involve James harden ffs
Bruhhh, our FO is legit ass these days
This is all allegations but everyone in the feed is acting like it’s an open and shut case lol. I believe a former employee of theirs is in the wrong but I have a hard time believing the entire organization was in on it.
Okay after reading other people’s comments and viewpoints. Imma wait for more information. Apparently Raptors are one of the first teams that were early adopters of Synergy. Apparently, they can access some of the data that they’re being accused of stealing through their own account. I don’t know anything about Synergy so I may be interpreting what I’m reading wrong. I’m currently reading more and waiting for more info.
Also apparently Dolan is known for filing weird and petty lawsuits, so this could be another one of those. Or maybe this is a legit? Who knows.
Right now we have one party accusing the other of doing something with malicious intent. This doesn’t mean it’s true though, it’s now up to the Knicks’ lawyers to prove that it’s true that Darko and some people in the Raps organization directed this former employee to steal.
This could be a huge nothing burger or super bad. Heck, it could be something in between. Either this former employee and Darko and co are not bright. Or this could be a case of someone transferring files that they’ve worked on themselves while ignoring IP/NDA laws? Idk.
Basically, I’m on the fence because I don’t know what to believe right now. We only got the Knicks side of things.
You don’t mess with the Mecca
Are we so poorly run that we had no way to teach Rajakovic how to run a team and had to resort to stealing from the Knicks?