The New York Knicks reportedly want $10 million from the Toronto Raptors. New York's lawsuit stemmed from allegedly stolen confidential files, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN. One interesting element of the situation is NBA commissioner Adam Silver's potential role in arbitrating the case.

It is known that Silver and Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum have a close relationship. Tanenbaum is the NBA's Chairman of the Board of Governors as well. The Knicks don't want the NBA handling the situation given Silver and Tanenbaum's relationship in addition to Tanenbaum's position.

“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,” the Knicks stated.

Knicks-Raptors situation

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The Knicks-Raptors situation has been going on for a few months now. New York's lawsuit was originally made after a former Knicks employee allegedly took scouting information from the team and gave the info to the Raptors. The Knicks believe this should be handled in federal court given the aforementioned reasons.

The former Knicks employee who was hired by the Raptors, which of course later led to the lawsuit, has denied the allegations. The question is whether the NBA or federal court will arbitrate the result.

It appears that this situation is still far from reaching a conclusion. It will be interesting to see if Adam Silver and the NBA respond. We will continue to monitor and provide updates as they are made available.

An MSG Sports spokesperson shared the following statement with ClutchPoints:

“We were the victim of a theft of proprietary and confidential files, which is a clear violation of criminal and civil law, and we remain confident that the Court will decide in our favor in this matter.”