The Knicks have sued a former team employee for allegedly stealing proprietary information from the franchise and bringing it to his new job with the Toronto Raptors.
The Knicks named the employee, Ikechukwu Azotam, as well as the Raptors organization, parent company Maple Leaf Sports, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, player development coach Noah Lewis and 10 unnamed John Does in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York on Monday.
“The New York Knicks have sued the Toronto Raptors and several members of their organization, including a former Knicks employee, after the former employee illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position with the Toronto Raptors,” the Knicks told The Post in a statement.
“These files include confidential information such as play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files and materials and more. Given the clear violation of our employment agreement, criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this action.”
Azotam was first hired by the Knicks in October 2020 as an assistant video coordinator and left the team this month as a director of video, analytics and player development assistant.
The lawsuit alleges that Rajakovic, a rookie head coach, sought to use Azotam’s experience with the Knicks to get him up to speed.
“To assist this novice coach in doing his job, Defendant Rajakovic 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 coaching and video operations staff,” the suit claims.
The lawsuit was first reported by SNY.
The suit alleges that Azotam, about the same time late last month he told the Knicks he had a job offer from the Raptors, “began secretly forwarding proprietary information from his Knicks email account to his personal Gmail account, which he then shared with Raptors defendants.”
“This material consists of secret, proprietary information critical to the Knicks’ efforts to maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals, including the Raptors. The Knicks take their cybersecurity very seriously and take great precautions to preserve the secrecy of their confidential information.”
The suit alleges the Raptors directed Azotam to access “the Knicks’ subscription to Synergy Sports to create and then transfer to the Raptors Defendants over 3,000 files consisting of film information and data.” Synergy Sports is a third-party provider the Knicks pay to compile video and data the team uses “to gain a competitive advantage,” according to the suit.
A source told The Post the Knicks reached out to the Raptors and the NBA last week, to inform them of what the team found, and no action was taken before the lawsuit was filed.
The Raptors released a statement Monday that they were informed of the complaint last week and quickly responded.
“MLSE and the Toronto Raptors received a letter from MSG on Thursday of last week bringing this complaint to our attention. MLSE responded promptly, making clear our intention to conduct an internal investigation and to fully cooperate,” the organization wrote. “MLSE has not been advised that a lawsuit was being filed or has been filed following its correspondence with MSG. The company strongly denies any involvement in the matters alleged. MLSE and the Toronto Raptors will reserve further comment until this matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.”
The suit does not specify damages the Knicks are seeking, but does seek an injunction preventing Azotam and the Raptors from using the information they allege he illegally brought with him to his new job.
