Lawyers for the Toronto Raptors called the Knicks’ lawsuit that alleges theft of proprietary information by an ex-Knick employee "baseless" and a "publicity stunt" in a motion filed on Monday.
The lawyers also asked the court to compel the Knicks to arbitrate all claims raised in the complaint and either dismiss the suit or stay all proceedings pending results of the arbitration.
Later Monday, an MSG Sports spokesperson said, "As we have previously stated, given the theft of proprietary and confidential files and clear violation of criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this to federal court and are confident the judicial system will agree."
Last month, the Knicks filed suit against the Raptors and several members of their organization, including former Knicks employee Ikechukwu Azotam, alleging that Azotam "illegally took thousands of proprietary files" from the Knicks and disclosed it to members of the Raptors, including new head coach Darko Rajaković and other members of the coaching staff.
Rajakovic has publicly denied any wrongdoing.
In asking the court to consider arbitration, the Raptors lawyers argue that the matter should be adjudicated by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The lawyers cited the NBA Constitution, which states that the commissioner "shall have exclusive, full, complete, and final jurisdiction of any dispute involving two (2) or more Members of the Association."
The Knicks say that the complaint falls outside of the commissioner’s...
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