Since resigning from his Board of Governors committee positions, proprietor James Dolan and the Knicks launched a lawsuit towards the Raptors searching for greater than $10M in damages over a problem that will usually be arbitrated by the NBA.
The go well with, which alleges {that a} former staff worker illegally took “confidential” recordsdata with him to his new place in Toronto, accused commissioner Adam Silver of bias on account of his friendship with Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum and Tanenbaum’s place as chairman of the Board of Governors.
As Baxter Holmes writes in an in-depth story for ESPN, Dolan additionally has a prolonged historical past with Raptors president Masai Ujiri. Again in 2011, when Ujiri was Denver’s lead basketball govt, he traded Carmelo Anthony to New York — a deal by which Dolan was later criticized for giving up an excessive amount of on a participant who wished to signal with the Knicks in free company.
Ujiri had one other well-known commerce with the Knicks a few years later whereas he was working the Raptors, Holmes notes, sending Andrea Bargnani to New York for Marcus Camby, Steve Novak and a number of first-round picks. Bargnani solely performed 71 video games over two seasons with New York.
Dolan reportedly nixed a deal between Toronto and New York that very same yr — 2013 — that will have despatched Kyle Lowry to the Knicks as a result of he “didn’t wish to get fleeced once more by Masai,” a supply instructed The New York Day by day Information.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported a couple of years in the past that Ujiri was Dolan’s “dream candidate” to run the Knicks, however he wound up returning to the Raptors on a long-term deal in 2021.
So far as the continuing lawsuit, authorized specialists, analytics staffers and rival executives alike are skeptical and “typically dismissive” of the Knicks’ claims, in response to Holmes.
“For those who had been involved about privateness and the lack of proprietary info, the final place you’d be pursuing that’s in a courtroom continuing searching for solely financial damages — as a result of whether or not it’s really proprietary goes to be a problem,” mentioned Robert Boland, a professor of sports activities regulation at Seton Corridor College Regulation College who additionally maintains a follow centered on sports activities labor and governance points.
“It’s important to show your damages on this circumstance and also you’re going to have to inform the courtroom, and by extension the general public, what they took from you and what its worth was. So extra of that turns into public, which possible means the Knicks don’t care about it. I’m assuming by the point we get by the courtroom hearings, all this info will probably be old-fashioned. I’m undecided the subject material is proprietary or that it’s even well timed anymore.”
Executives particularly cited Dolan’s “litigious fame,” Holmes provides.
“I feel it is a full center finger from Dolan to Larry Tanenbaum — and I feel it’s nothing greater than that,” one Jap Convention govt instructed ESPN.
In response to Holmes, the Raptors are anticipated to file a response to the Knicks’ newest submitting on Dec. 11. Boland — one of many authorized specialists Holmes spoke to — is not sure what’s going to occur subsequent.
“I don’t see a settlement on this case, however I don’t know if the Knicks are going to win,” mentioned Boland, an admitted Knicks fan. “I don’t actually see a transparent technique. I feel the eye is the specified consequence.”
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic can also be named within the lawsuit. He as soon as once more defended himself amid the allegations and mentioned he’s wanting ahead to the case being resolved, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Submit.
“Help from the start was simply wonderful as a result of we talked about it, we defined what occurred or what didn’t occur. I do know who I’m, I do know my integrity, I do know who I symbolize,” Rajakovic mentioned. “I symbolize one wonderful group and folks within the entrance workplace and the gamers. I’m actually wanting ahead for all of this to be solved and for everyone to search out out the reality. I’ve bought nothing to fret about.”
