The Knicks have openly questioned NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s integrity in an explosive 24-page court filing obtained by The Post, in which NY are seeking over $10 million in their lawsuit against the Raptors.
The filing by New York was in response to Toronto’s motion to dismiss the suit, as the Knicks argued it should be the court that handles the matter, rather than the NBA itself.
The Knicks took issue with the fact that Silver has a close relationship with Toronto minority owner Larry Tanenbaum and really hammered the point home.
“In his capacity as Chairman, Tanenbaum serves as Silver’s boss and exercises control over and heavily influences Silver’s continued employment and salary,” the Knicks say in the documents.
The franchise continued to go into further detail.
“Tanenbaum and Silver also have a close relationship,” the document argues. “Among other things, Tanenbaum has been described as ‘a close ally of Commissioner Adam Silver.’ Silver himself described Tanenbaum as ‘not just my boss as the chairman of the board of governors, but he’s very much a role model in my life.’
“If Silver were to preside over the instant dispute, he would be arbitrating a case for his boss and ally.”
Since the court documents have been reported on, Knicks owner James Dolan resigned his positions on the NBA board of governors’ influential advisory/finance and media committees, according to a memo obtained by ESPN.
“Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion,” Dolan wrote in a July memo to Silver that he copied to the other 29 league owners.”
Dolan hasn’t given up voting power for his franchise though, and will allow Knicks general counsel Jamaal Lesane to represent the organization at the BOG meetings.
The lawsuit began in August when the Knicks accussed former staffer Ike Azotam, of stealing proprietary information from the organization and taking it to use with his new job at the Raptors.
The information allegedly included over 3,000 files with video and data.