The Knicks have absolutely no desire to settle things amicably with the Raptors. A few months ago, James Dolan’s franchise filed a complaint against the Canadian club, explaining that Ike Azotam, the former head of video and player development for the Knicks, allegedly stole “scouting reports, including frequency of use of gaming systems, a preparation book and a link to third-party licensed software” when he joined Darko Rajakovic’s staff during the summer.
On the Raptors side, we replied that if Ike Azotam did use his account with the Knicks to transfer documents when taking his new position within the Toronto club, he only recovered data generally accessible to all league franchises. Nothing strategic or sensitive, then.
The Toronto club therefore appealed to the NBA to find a compromise and avoid a trial that it considered unnecessary.
The Knicks go after Adam Silver
Except that on the New York side, we really don’t see things that way. ESPN thus obtained the response from the Knicks’ lawyers, who assure that the “Big Apple” franchise is demanding more than the 10 million dollars that Adam Silver could inflict, at most, on the Raptors in the context of a dispute between two franchises.
Above all, they directly call into question the impartiality of the commissioner in relation to Larry Tanenbaum, the boss of the Raptors who is also the president of the “Board of Governors” of the league!
“Larry Tanenbaum is Adam Silver’s boss and exercises control over Adam Silver’s continued employment and salary, which he strongly influences” thus assure the Knicks, who also evoke the friendship between the two men. “Larry Tanenbaum has notably been described as a close ally of Commissioner Adam Silver. Adam Silver himself described Larry Tanenbaum as ‘not only my boss as chairman of the Board of Governors (which brings together the owners), but is also a role model in my life’. If Adam Silver were to decide this dispute, he would be arbitrating a case for his boss and ally.”
Even more astonishing, the Knicks outright accuse Adam Silver of having forced the owners’ hand in order to place his friend Larry Tanenbaum at the head of the “Board of Governors” in 2017, then in 2022…
