Ikechukwu Azotam

Atlantic Notes: Knicks/Raptors Dispute, Shamet, Simmons, Beekman, Celtics

December 17th, 2024 at 3:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has scheduled an arbitration hearing regarding the Knicks/Raptors dispute for late July, reports Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link). As Bondy points out, that means the hearing will occur nearly two years after the Knicks initially filed a lawsuit against the Raptors and over a year after a U.S. District Court judge referred the matter back to the league.

The Knicks filed a suit in August 2023 alleging that former video coordinator Ikechukwu Azotam illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to a position with the Raptors and shared them with his new club. New York was seeking $10MM in damages from Toronto.

The Raptors, referring to the suit as “baseless,” argued that the issue ought to be resolved through the NBA’s arbitration process rather than in court. The Knicks countered by contending that commissioner Adam Silver can’t provide an impartial ruling due to his close relationship with Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum, who is also the chairman of the league’s Board of Governors.

The Knicks, who have put out statements every step of the way criticizing the league for its handling of the situation, did so again on Tuesday.

“Last June, the Courts ordered the NBA to arbitrate this theft of proprietary and confidential files – and now, after the NBA sat on this for seven months, we are being told that we will finally get a hearing in another seven months,” an MSG spokesperson said (Twitter link via Bondy). “We remain skeptical because the NBA has consistently demonstrated no desire to address this matter, most likely due to the fact that the Chairman of the NBA is the defendant.”

We have more from around the Atlantic:

Landry Shamet, who dislocated his shoulder during the preseason, returned to action on Monday for the Westchester Knicks, scoring 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting in 20 minutes. There has been a belief that the Knicks will re-sign Shamet once he’s healthy and ready to contribute at the NBA level, but that won’t happen quite yet, according to head coach Tom Thibodeau, who attended Monday’s game (Twitter video link). “It’s good to see him out there healthy again,” Thibodeau said. “(But) there’s a number of things that have to happen before he can play with us.”
Ben Simmons played a season-high 31 minutes on Monday in his first game as the Nets‘ primary point guard following the trade of Dennis Schröder, but struggled running the offense and turned the ball over six times in a blowout loss to Cleveland, notes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “I think it’s just reading the game. When you speed up, you’re gonna have more errors,” said Simmons, who was making an effort to push the pace. “But that’s on me to just know where my guys are gonna be and taking care of the ball as a point guard.”
New Nets two-way player Reece Beekman wasn’t active on Monday, but he’s embracing his new opportunity after being sent to Brooklyn in the Schröder trade, Lewis writes in a separate New York Post story. “For this to be my rookie year and not even halfway through the season for me to get traded is a little crazy,” Beekman said. “But that’s life in the league. So I just got to be able to adjust fast. Just blessed for this opportunity. New situation, but got to get settled in and be ready to hoop. Just do whatever the team needs. I’m coming in with a work-hard mentality and try to do what’s best for the team to put ourselves in a better position.”
Brian Robb of MassLive takes a look at what the Celtics can and can’t do on the trade market this season, given their second-apron restrictions, and considers whether the team has any areas of need to address.

Eastern Notes: Knicks/Raptors Dispute, Hornets, Banchero, Holland, Sixers

December 13th, 2024 at 6:47pm CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks and Raptors were required to update the court on the status of the arbitration process of their legal dispute on Friday, but agreed in a joint filing that there’s nothing to report, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post relays.

The Knicks filed a lawsuit in August 2023 alleging that former video coordinator Ikechukwu Azotam illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position with the Raptors and shared them with his new club. The Raptors, referring to the suit as “baseless,” argued that the issue ought to be resolved through the NBA’s arbitration process rather than in court, while the Knicks contended that commissioner Adam Silver wouldn’t be impartial.

A U.S. District Court judge ultimately sided with the Raptors and sent the matter back to the NBA, but with no movement yet toward arbitration, the Knicks didn’t miss the opportunity to fire another shot at Silver.

“We’ve been waiting for any direction from the NBA on next steps in this matter for months — proving our point that the NBA is not capable of appropriately and fairly handling this serious theft of proprietary and confidential files,” an MSG Sports spokesperson said in a statement, per Bondy. “Unfortunately, because of the clear conflict of interest between the Commissioner and the Chairman of the NBA, there has been complete silence from the league.”

We have more from around the Eastern Conference:

Two injured Hornets players have been cleared to return to action on Friday in Chicago, with Miles Bridges (right knee bone bruise) and Tidjane Salaun (left ankle sprain) deemed available, per the team (Twitter link). Bridges, who last played on November 19, has missed Charlotte’s past 10 games, while Salaun has been sidelined since last Thursday.
Magic forward Paolo Banchero stated in mid-November that he hoped to be back to the court by Christmas, but his return from a torn oblique doesn’t appear close, as Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel relays. “He’s doing the same ball-handling, a little light movement on the floor, and then just trying to find ways to get the cardio up without applying too much pressure,” head coach Jamahl Mosley said on Friday. “But again, he’s just slowly moving his way to touching the court.”
Pistons rookie Ron Holland entered Thursday’s game in Boston having averaged 5.6 points per game on .425/.180/.786 shooting through his first 25 NBA games. But with Detroit facing a 25-point deficit on Thursday, Holland got a chance to play the entire fourth quarter and showed glimpses of what he could become, finishing the game with 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting. While most of those points came in garbage time, the Pistons were encouraged by what they saw from the No. 5 overall pick. “It’s still against NBA players,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. “Against a team who has a great system on both sides of the ball, and they understand what they’re doing. And it proved that he can be successful versus that. Hopefully, that leads to the confidence that kind of unlocks him a little bit and now he goes and he continues to build off of this.”
Sixers forward Paul George can identify first-hand with what teammate Joel Embiid is going through. After Embiid admitted that his knee issues have been “extremely depressing,” George – who has an extensive injury history of his own – said that dealing with health problems is the “toughest part of the game,” writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “We build ourselves up so much. The media builds us up. The community builds us up,” George said. “Then you face an injury that you know you’re not yourself. You’re not the same, but you are expected to be yourself when you get on that floor. So, mentally, it is tough.”

Raptors Respond To Knicks As Legal Battle Continues

December 12th, 2023 at 10:00am CST by Luke Adams

While two Atlantic Division rivals competed on the court on Monday, their legal battle raged on off the court, with the Raptors responding to the claims made by the Knicks in a court filing last month, according to Baxter Holmes of ESPN.

To recap the events to date, the Knicks filed a lawsuit against the Raptors in August, alleging that former employee Ikechukwu Azotam illegally took confidential files with him when he was hired by Toronto. The Raptors called the suit a “baseless” PR stunt and sought to have it dismissed, insisting that commissioner Adam Silver – rather than the courts – should arbitrate the dispute between two NBA teams.

In November, the Knicks responded by questioning Silver’s impartiality due to his friendship with Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum and contending that the courts should handle the case because the Knicks are seeking more than $10MM in damages, which is the maximum amount the league can penalize a team.

In Monday’s filing, according to Holmes, the Raptors accused the Knicks of dragging out the case for publicity and – for the first time – raised the possibility of filing a countersuit against the Knicks for defamatory public statements once this case is resolved. The Raptors also challenged New York’s claim that Silver is biased, insisting again that the NBA commissioner arbitrate the dispute.

“The NBA Commissioner is not biased and he is the best person to adjudicate this dispute because of his ability to identify what, if any, information is confidential and proprietary such that its misuse may harm a Member like the Knicks,” the Raptors wrote. “The Knicks’ aversion to his jurisdiction is simply because they know they will not like his determination. Although it is inevitable the Knicks’ claims will fail on the merits in any forum, this proceeding permits the Knicks to keep their allegations in the public media, causing harm to the Named Defendants.”

As Holmes details, the Raptors have maintained throughout the legal process that the information Azotam took with him to his new position wasn’t confidential and that head coach Darko Rajakovic and the Raptors never saw any of the Knicks’ trade secrets.

“Coach Rajakovic — with nearly 15 years’ experience as a head coach overseas and in the NBA’s G-League and another decade as an assistant coach in the NBA — never needed, wanted, or saw a single piece of Knicks’ proprietary information,” the Raptors said. “Nor did Azotam ever share any proprietary Knicks information. The Knicks would have learned this if had they accepted the Raptors’ offer to cooperate in an investigation instead of immediately filing this suit.”

If the Knicks were “genuinely concerned” about misuse of proprietary information, the Raptors stated in their filing, they would have accepted Toronto’s invitation to cooperate in a thorough investigation of the allegations rather than having “mired themselves in lengthy judicial proceedings.” The Raptors also argued on Monday that the Knicks’ claims of having incurred $10MM+ in damages hasn’t been substantiated in any way.

“To the contrary,” the Raptors wrote, “the Knicks have offered the Court no theory or measurement of damages whatsoever — because they have not been harmed but appear to have made this claim to generate press attention.”

According to Holmes, an MSG spokesperson responded to the Raptors’ repeated insistence on referring the dispute to Silver for adjudication by stating, “Hopefully the Court will make it clear that Toronto cannot escape the consequence of breaking the law by being a member of the NBA.”

As Holmes writes, legal experts have referred to the standoff between the Knicks and Raptors as virtually unprecedented, making it difficult to predict the outcome, though many of those experts have been skeptical about New York’s chances of winning the case.

On the court, the Knicks defeated the Raptors on Monday for a second time this month, pulling out a 136-130 home victory.

Knicks Respond To Raptors’ Motion, Don’t Want Silver To Rule On Dispute

November 20th, 2023 at 5:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Knicks have responded to a motion filed by the Raptors that sought to dismiss New York’s lawsuit against them, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post reports. The Knicks are seeking more than $10MM in their lawsuit and have also dragged commissioner Adam Silver’s name into the dispute between the Atlantic Division clubs.

The Knicks argued that the court system should handle the matter, rather than the NBA, because of Silver’s allegedly tight relationship with Toronto minority owner Larry Tanenbaum.

Tanenbaum is currently the NBA’s Chairman of the Board of Governors.

The Knicks wrote in their 24-page response on Monday, “Silver himself described Tanenbaum as ‘not just my boss as the chairman of the Board of Governors, but he’s very much a role model in my life. If Silver were to preside over the instant dispute, he would be arbitrating a case for his boss and ally,” ESPN’s Baxter Holmes tweets.

The Knicks also inferred that Tanenbaum was handpicked by Silver as Chairman, Bondy adds.

The lawsuit stems from their allegations that Ikechukwu Azotam, a former Knicks video coordinator, stole scouting and analytics secrets – including files containing “over 3,000 videos” – and gave them to the Raptors after he was hired by their organization. Azotam and Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic were also named in the suit.

In the motion to dismiss, Toronto called the lawsuit “baseless” and “a public relations stunt” by the Knicks. The Raptors also wrote that the dispute should be handled by Silver instead of a federal judge, pursuant to a bylaw in the NBA’s constitution that reads, “The Commissioner shall have exclusive, full, complete, and final jurisdiction of any dispute involving two (2) or more Members of the Association.”

The Knicks also claim that since their damages exceed $10MM, which is more than NBA can penalize a team, the courts should handle the case rather than the league office, Mike Vornukov of The Athetic tweets.

Raptors Seek To Have Knicks’ “Baseless” Lawsuit Dismissed

October 16th, 2023 at 4:37pm CST by Rory Maher

The Raptors have filed a motion in New York to dismiss the Knicks‘ lawsuit, which alleges that former employee Ikechukwu Azotam “illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position” with Toronto, according to Mike Vorkunov, Eric Koreen and Fred Katz of The Athletic.

In the motion to dismiss, Toronto called the lawsuit “baseless” and “a public relations stunt by the Knicks,” per The Athletic.

Azotam, head coach Darko Rajakovic, development coach Noah Lewis and are among several defendants in the lawsuit.

“As the Knicks surely expected and presumably intended, the filing of this lawsuit — virtually unprecedented between two members of the NBA or, frankly, two teams in any North American professional sports league — generated significant publicity,” the motion to dismiss states. “The effect of such a public accusation of wrongdoing in federal court was to tarnish the stellar reputations of Messrs. Rajaković, Lewis and Azotam, as well as MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the Raptors’ parent company), and to chill present and future Knicks’ employees from their pursuit of employment with other members.”

To support the claim that the Knicks were seeking publicity rather than something legitimate, the Raptors put out a timeline of events in their filing, The Athletic’s trio writes. On August 18, a day after the Knicks told the Raptors about the allegations, Toronto said it had no interest in the “proprietary” data that Azotam took and would cooperate with New York. The Knicks filed the lawsuit the next business day, August 21.

The Knicks alleged that Rajakovic “recruited and used” Azotam as a “mole.” However, the Raptors’ filing says those allegations are “false and overblown” and that the data was not confidential, but rather “publicly available information.”

“These were not the Knicks’ team and player statistics, play frequency data, player tendencies or play calls, but rather those of other NBA teams — including particularly the Raptors’ own game film — compiled from video of their games accessible to all NBA teams (and, indeed, the general public). In other words, they were far from confidential, let alone trade secrets. The Knicks surely know this,” the motion states, according to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.

“As we have previously stated, given the theft of proprietary and confidential files and clear violation of criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this to federal court and are confident the judicial system will agree,” a Knicks spokesperson said in reply to the filing.

According to Holmes, the Raptors believe that the dispute should be handled by commissioner Adam Silver instead of a federal judge, pursuant to a bylaw in the NBA’s constitution that reads, “The Commissioner shall have exclusive, full, complete, and final jurisdiction of any dispute involving two (2) or more Members of the Association.”

Obviously the Knicks disagreed, arguing the NBA doesn’t have “exclusive authority over criminal matters.” NBA general counsel Rich Buchanan later told the two teams that the league would abide by the judge’s decision on if the lawsuit should be decided by the NBA or the court.

Atlantic Notes: Lawsuit, Knicks, Raptors, Warren, Stevens

August 24th, 2023 at 7:16pm CST by Rory Maher

While the Knicks made some bold claims in their lawsuit against the Raptors, people around the NBA aren’t convinced it’s as big of a scandal as it might seem on paper, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.

“I’m not being dismissive of this,” a league executive told Grange. “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.”

As Grange writes, the NBA is a copycat league, so proving that the “confidential Knicks information” that was allegedly taken by former employee Ikechukwu Azotam was truly invaluable might be difficult. There’s a reason the Knicks left the damages they’re seeking as “TBD” — they probably don’t know what exactly was taken and if it will materially impact their business, a lawyer told Grange.

Ultimately, Grange thinks the lawsuit is unlikely to go to court and will probably be handled by the NBA. He suggests Toronto might face a six-figure fine and perhaps the loss of a second-round pick.

Here’s more from the Atlantic:

Head coach Tom Thibodeau will likely gripe about the Knicks‘ schedule for the 2023/24 season, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post (subscriber link). After being tied with the Hornets for the fewest games (five) with “rest advantage” last season, the Knicks have eight such games during the upcoming campaign — tied for fifth-fewest in the league, per Braziller. Rest advantage is exactly what it implies — games in which a team will be more rested than the opponent. The Celtics lead the league with 16 rest advantage games, Braziller notes.
The Celtics are working out — or have worked out — a number of veteran free agent wings, including T.J. Warren and Lamar Stevens. Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston considers whether Warren and/or Stevens would be good fits for the back end of the roster.
In case you missed it, the NBA fined Sixers star James Harden $100K for recent comments he made, but the Players Association disagreed with Harden’s fine and is filing a grievance on his behalf.

Raptors Respond To Lawsuit; Knicks Allege Former Employee Was ‘Mole’

August 21st, 2023 at 7:17pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Raptors and the team’s parent company, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, expressed surprise that the Knicks filed a lawsuit against them regarding alleged proprietary violations and issued a denial that the company was involved, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports tweets via a Raptors press release.

The Knicks filed the lawsuit on Monday alleging that former employee Ikechukwu Azotam “illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position” with the Raptors. Azotam, who was hired away by Toronto this offseason, allegedly shared the proprietary information with “several members” of the team, including head coach Darko Rajakovic and player development coach Noah Lewis.

“MLSE and the Toronto Raptors received a letter from MSG on Thursday of last week bringing this complaint to our attention,” Toronto’s response reads. “MLSE responded promptly, making clear our intention to conduct an internal investigation and to fully cooperate. 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 Knicks allege that not only did Rajakovic know what was occurring but that he “recruited and used” Azotam to help him build out the operations for his coaching staff, according to The Athletic’s Fred Katz, Mike Vornukov and Eric Koreen.

The lawsuit alleges that the information Azotam forwarded to the Raptors included scouting reports, play frequency reports, a prep book, and a link to third-party licensed software. It 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 Athletic trio received a written statement from an MSG Sports spokesperson which stated that “we were left no choice but to take this action.”

Knicks File Lawsuit Against Raptors, Former NYK Employee

August 21st, 2023 at 3:08pm CST by Rory Maher

The Knicks filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that former employee Ikechukwu Azotam “illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position” with the Raptors, which he then shared with his new club, reports Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter thread).

Azotam, who was hired away by Toronto this offseason, allegedly shared the proprietary information with “several members” of the team, including head coach Darko Rajakovic and player development coach Noah Lewis, Begley adds.

The lawsuit alleges Azotam signed a confidentiality agreement with the Knicks which required him “to maintain the secrecy of all confidential or proprietary Knicks information.” A source tells Begley the Knicks contacted both the Raptors and the NBA prior to filing the lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.

According to Begley, the lawsuit also alleges that the Raptors “directed Azotam to misuse his access to 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.”

A Madision Square Garden Sports spokesperson released a statement to Begley regarding the lawsuit (Twitter thread).

“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. 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.”

[UPDATE: Raptors Respond To Lawsuit]

In addition to Azotam, Rajakovic, and Lewis, 10 other Raptors employees are also accused of wrongdoing, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday. Those employees are currently unknown — they’re listed as John Does “1” through “10.”