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A federal judge Friday granted the Toronto Raptors’ motion to compel the New York Knicks’ trade secret lawsuit to arbitration. The decision means the dispute will move from the public forum of litigation to a private dispute resolution process overseen by the NBA.
U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke’s 29-page ruling was not on the merits of the Knicks’ allegations but instead on whether the dispute should even be in court. Clarke agreed with the Raptors that NBA commissioner Adam Silver should determine whether the dispute is arbitrable. Silver will almost certainly conclude the dispute falls within his purview as commissioner.
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Last August, the Knicks sued the Raptors and their officials over alleged “mole” and former Knicks analytics staffer Ikechukwu Azotam. The Knicks accuse Azotam of emailing scouting reports and other sensitive materials to the Raptors officials during a period in which he was completing work for the Knicks before starting a new job with Toronto.
An MSG Sports spokesperson told Sportico it disagrees with the ruling.
“We were the victim of a theft of proprietary and confidential files in a clear violation of criminal and civil law and are continuing to evaluate our legal options,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We don’t think it’s appropriate for the Commissioner of the NBA to rule on a matter involving his boss, the Chairman of the NBA, and his team.”
In explaining her decision, Clarke repeatedly highlighted the explicit language of the NBA’s constitution, a contract that governs all NBA teams. The constitution states the commissioner has “exclusive, full, complete and final jurisdiction of any dispute” involving two or more teams and renders his decision “final, binding and conclusive.”
Among other arguments, the Knicks insisted the constitution’s arbitration clause is unenforceable on account of it being so broadly worded. The Knicks noted that, as worded, the clause would apply to disputes that are unrelated to basketball, such as if a staffer of one team physically attacked the staffer of another team.
Clarke was…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-raptors-espionage-case-heads-120000484.html
Author : Sportico
Publish date : 2024-06-29 12:00:00
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