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By now, most sports fans probably never want to hear the word “spygate” ever again.
After all, the years-long saga between the NFL and the New England Patriots over taping other teams’ practice footage has been covered to death.
But what if it happened again?
No, the Patriots aren’t up to their old tricks (that we know of). But there does appear to be a problem over in the NBA.
Baxter Holmes of ESPN reports that the New York Knicks have bypassed the league office and gone straight to court to sue the Toronto Raptors for allegedly stealing proprietary information.
“The New York Knicks on Monday sued the Toronto Raptors, members of the Raptors organization and a former Knicks employee whom they alleged ‘illegally procured and then disclosed proprietary information’ to their Atlantic Division rival,” Holmes reports.” “According to a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and was obtained by ESPN, the Knicks state that Ikechukwu Azotam, who worked for the Knicks from 2020 to 2023, sent the Raptors thousands of confidential files — including play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files, opposition research and more — after the team began recruiting him to join their organization in summer 2023.”
Azotam allegedly violated a confidentiality clause in an employment agreement with the Knicks and the Raptors are alleged to have knowingly benefited from him doing so.
But the suit goes even further.
It alleges that Toronto “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 lawsuit states.”
The Raptors have not yet issued an official statement on the suit. But this doesn’t feel like it’s going away anytime soon.