The National Basketball Association’s New York Knicks sued rivals the Toronto Raptors in Manhattan on Monday, accusing the Raptors’ new teaching workers of hiring a “mole” who gave the workforce their scouting studies and different confidential materials.
The Knicks accused their former video, analytics and player-development assistant Ikechukwu Azotam, who left the workforce final week, of stealing 1000’s of proprietary information and forwarding them to the Raptors.
Representatives for the Raptors didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A spokesperson for the Knicks’ mother or father firm MSG Sports stated that “given the clear violation of our employment agreement, criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this action.”
The Raptors employed Darko Rajakovic, beforehand an assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, as their head coach in June.
“As a first time NBA head coach, Defendant Rajakovic would be expected to bring his own organizational structure and coaching method,” stated the Knicks’ lawsuit, which names Rajakovic, Azotam and several other unidentified Raptors workers as defendants.
“Apparently, given his non-traditional path to his head coaching job, Defendant Rajakovic did not have his own, so he chose to exploit the Knicks’ methods,” it stated.
The Knicks first employed Azotam as a video coordinator in 2020. The lawsuit stated Azotam was recruited by the Raptors beginning in June and instructed the Knicks he had acquired a job supply from them in late July.
According to the lawsuit, Azotam started sending confidential info to the Raptors across the similar time, together with particulars in regards to the Knicks’ organizational construction, studies on opponents’ performs and tendencies, and recreation movies edited by its scouting workforce.
The Knicks requested an unspecified quantity of damages and requested the court docket to completely block the Raptors and Azotam from misusing their commerce secrets and techniques. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
