NBA sets hearing date for Knicks-Raptors legal dispute but it wont be for a while
The NBA finally has set a date to resolve the legal dispute between the Knicks and the Raptors, but that won’t be until the summer of 2025. A hearing has been set for late July, a league source told The Post’s Stefan Bondy.That is 13 months after the courts handed off the case to the NBA for arbitration and nearly two years since the original lawsuit was filed in August 2023, accusing former Knicks employee Ike Azotam of “illegally taking thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position” with the Raptors. “Last June, the Courts ordered the NBA to arbitrate this theft of proprietary and confidential files — and now, after the NBA sat on this for seven months, we are being told that we will finally get a hearing in another seven months,” an MSG Sports spokesperson said in a statement.
“We remain skeptical because the NBA has consistently demonstrated no desire to address this matter, most likely due to the fact that the Chairman of the NBA is the defendant.” The Knicks were seeking $10 million in damages as part of the original legal filing, but a federal judge ruled in June that the dispute should be arbitrated by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The judge requested an update from the league by Dec.13, but the teams had agreed in a joint filing that the NBA had not provided any update by that deadline.
The two franchises finally heard from the league Monday that the matter would be investigated. “The NBA has admitted to sitting on this serious theft of proprietary and confidential files for several months,” an MSG Sports spokesperson said Monday.“The NBA has a clear conflict of interest and a lack of desire to see a fair outcome in this matter — which we’ve said all along.” Injured guard Landry Shamet appeared in his first game Monday for G League Westchester since suffering a dislocated shoulder in the preseason and being waived in October.
The six-year NBA veteran scored 10 points in 19 minutes. “I watched the game ...