Knicks pettiness towards Raptors continues as they try to block WNBA team
It seems that even a blockbuster trade that helped the New York Knicks to their best season in years hasn’t stopped their pettiness against the Toronto Raptors.
On Thursday, the news was made official that the WNBA will be coming to Toronto in 2026, with an expansion team set to play out of Coca-Cola Coliseum.
But according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Knicks were the lone team out of the NBA’s 30 Board of Governors to vote against the new franchise coming north of the border.
ESPN Sources: In approving a new WNBA franchise in Toronto, the WNBA Board of Governors voted 13-0 and the NBA’s Board of Governors voted 29-1. Only the New York Knicks voted against the expansion. Knicks are suing Raptors in case over alleged “theft of proprietary information."
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 23, 2024
Back in August, it was reported that the Knicks were suing the Raptors “and several members of their organization” due to a former New York team employee who allegedly “illegally took thousands of proprietary files” to their new role with Toronto.
The main person of interest in the lawsuit was Ikechukwu “Ike” Azotam, who Toronto added to their staff over the course of last offseason, with Azotam allegedly sharing the files with newly hired head coach Darko Rajaković and player development coach Noah Lewis.
“The company strongly denies any involvement in the matters alleged. MLSE and the Toronto Raptors will reserve further comment until this matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties,” an initial MLSE statement read.
“There has been one time a team has sued a team in the NBA. One time. Go figure,” said Raptors team president Masai Ujiri back in October. Reports have suggested the Knicks had previously tried to hire Ujiri in 2020, who has been with the franchise since 2013.
The case remains unsettled.
As previously mentioned, the rivalry doesn’t appear to have any effect on actual trades between the two teams.
Back in December, Toronto and New York made a high-profile swap, with RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley coming to the Raptors in exchange for OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, and Malachi Flynn.
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