Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
On Monday, the New York Knicks filed a lawsuit against the Toronto Raptors, their new coach, and a former member of the team’s scouting department, alleging that the defendants planned to steal thousands of films and other scouting-related trade secrets during the previous few weeks.
Unspecified damages and an injunction against further disclosure of the Knicks’ trade secrets are sought in the case filed in federal court in Manhattan. A prep guide, a link to priceless software, scouting and play frequency reports, as well as other secrets were allegedly downloaded thousands of times by Raptors staff members.
The Raptors hired and attracted “a mole” within the Knicks organization, according to the Knicks, who said the theft happened in recent weeks. He was identified as Ikechukwu Azotam in the lawsuit, who had been in charge of overseeing the planning, coordination, and allocation of all video scouting duties for the Knicks coaching staff since August 2021.
They accused the Raptors’ new head coach Darko Rajakovic, player development coach Noah Lewis, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd, and 10 unnamed Raptors workers of receiving confidential information and occasionally ordering Azotam to abuse his access to Knicks information.
A prep manual for the 2022–2023 season was among the hundreds of proprietary data that Azotam brought with him to his new role with the Raptors, according to a statement from Madison Square Garden Sports.
Read Next: Apple Settles: iPhone Users May Receive Rs 5400 in Rs 4169 Crore Lawsuit
Legal Clash Erupts
Madison Square Garden Sports said in a statement that it filed a lawsuit against Azotam after he brought thousands of confidential documents, including a 2022–2023 season prep book, to his new employment with the Raptors.
According to the lawsuit, the Raptors started hiring Azotam in June to help their inexperienced head coach put together a new coaching and video operations team.
The lawsuit claimed that Azotam started improperly converting and appropriating the Knicks’ proprietary and sensitive information at the beginning of August. He sent two emails containing “proprietary information with highly confidential material” from his old Knicks email address to his new Raptors email address on August 11, according to the lawsuit.
One email, according to the lawsuit, had an advanced scouting report on the Indiana Pacers players, including team and player statistics, data on crucial plays and play frequency, specific player trends and scouting, strategy analysis, and other information.
According to the lawsuit, the second email featured an extensive scouting report on the Denver Nuggets that included details comparable to the study of the Indiana Pacers.
According to the lawsuit, Azotam also provided the Knicks with material they had utilized to be ready for their game against the Dallas Mavericks, including a play frequency report for the Mavericks.
3,000 files including film information and data, including 3,358 video files, were created and transferred for the Raptors’ use by Azotam under the direction of Raptors workers, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claimed that over 2,000 times the stolen files had been accessed by Raptors employees.
Read Next: ‘The Blind Side’ Lawsuit: Tuohy Family Aims to End Michael Oher’s Conservatorship
Source: ABC News
