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, Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković and player development coach Noah Lewis 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.”
The lawsuit alleges that Rajaković, 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 Rajaković 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.
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 lawsuit was first reported by SNY.
The suit alleges that Azotam “began secretly forwarding proprietary information from his Knicks email account to his personal Gmail account, which he then shared with Raptors defendants.”
The suit specified the files Azotam allegedly brought with him to his job with the Raptors.
“These materials included scouting reports, play frequency reports, a prep book, and
a link to third-party licensed software,” the suit continued.
“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.”
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