The Knicks and Raptors were required to update the court on the status of the arbitration process of their legal dispute on Friday, but agreed in a joint filing that there’s nothing to report, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post relays.
The Knicks filed a lawsuit in August 2023 alleging that former video coordinator Ikechukwu Azotam illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position with the Raptors and shared them with his new club. The Raptors, referring to the suit as “baseless,” argued that the issue ought to be resolved through the NBA’s arbitration process rather than in court, while the Knicks contended that commissioner Adam Silver wouldn’t be impartial.
A U.S. District Court judge ultimately sided with the Raptors and sent the matter back to the NBA, but with no movement yet toward arbitration, the Knicks didn’t miss the opportunity to fire another shot at Silver.
“We’ve 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 appropriately and fairly handling this serious theft of proprietary and confidential files,” an MSG Sports spokesperson said in a statement, per Bondy. “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.”
We have more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Two injured Hornets players have been cleared to return to action on Friday in Chicago, with Miles Bridges (right knee bone bruise) and Tidjane Salaun (left ankle sprain) deemed available, per the team (Twitter link). Bridges, who last played on November 19, has missed Charlotte’s past 10 games, while Salaun has been sidelined since last Thursday.
- Magic forward Paolo Banchero stated in mid-November that he hoped to be back to the court by Christmas, but his return from a torn oblique doesn’t appear close, as Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel relays. “He’s doing the same ball-handling, a little light movement on the floor, and then just trying to find ways to get the cardio up without applying too much pressure,” head coach Jamahl Mosley said on Friday. “But again, he’s just slowly moving his way to touching the court.”
- Pistons rookie Ron Holland entered Thursday’s game in Boston having averaged 5.6 points per game on .425/.180/.786 shooting through his first 25 NBA games. But with Detroit facing a 25-point deficit on Thursday, Holland got a chance to play the entire fourth quarter and showed glimpses of what he could become, finishing the game with 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting. While most of those points came in garbage time, the Pistons were encouraged by what they saw from the No. 5 overall pick. “It’s still against NBA players,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. “Against a team who has a great system on both sides of the ball, and they understand what they’re doing. And it proved that he can be successful versus that. Hopefully, that leads to the confidence that kind of unlocks him a little bit and now he goes and he continues to build off of this.”
- Sixers forward Paul George can identify first-hand with what teammate Joel Embiid is going through. After Embiid admitted that his knee issues have been “extremely depressing,” George – who has an extensive injury history of his own – said that dealing with health problems is the “toughest part of the game,” writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “We build ourselves up so much. The media builds us up. The community builds us up,” George said. “Then you face an injury that you know you’re not yourself. You’re not the same, but you are expected to be yourself when you get on that floor. So, mentally, it is tough.”