While a court asked the NBA to handle the dispute between the Raptors and Knicks and requested an update by Dec. 13, no update was provided, which led the Knicks to blame NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s "bias for the NBA dragging its feet to arbitrate" the dispute. An MSG Sports spokesperson in a statement said they have been “waiting for any direction from the NBA on next steps in this matter for months -- proving our point that the NBA is not capable” of handling the situation. The statement added, “Unfortunately, because of the clear conflict of interest between the Commissioner and the Chairman of the NBA, there has been complete silence from the league.” In August 2023, the Knicks filed a lawsuit alleging that their former video coordinator Ike Azotam had "stolen 'thousands of proprietary files' such as scouting secrets and shared them with his new employer, the Raptors.” The Knicks had sought damages of more than $10M from the Raptors while “claiming Silver is too compromised to fairly arbitrate the dispute because he’s beholden” to Raptors part owner and NBA Chair Larry Tanenbaum (N.Y. POST, 12/13).
Knicks blame Silver for no update in Raptors dispute
