New York Knicks team owner James Dolan reportedly stepped down from multiple positions he held across various NBA board committees in July, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Dolan informed the other 29 team owners as well as commissioner Adam Silver in a memo saying that he would be resigning from positions he held on the board of governors advisory/finance and media committees.
"Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion," Dolan wrote in the memo.
It's unclear what Dolan meant by "all that has occurred lately," but he also wrote in the memo he won't be attending any more board of governor meetings, though he's still holding onto his voting power for the Knicks. Instead, Jamaal Lesane, who serves as the Knicks general counsel, will represent the team at board meetings, per Wojnarowski.
"My hope is that the Knicks will be treated equally and fairly as all other NBA teams," Dolan said. "... As you know, I am very busy with all my duties at MSG family of companies. I need to apply my time where I can be most productive."
Wojnarowski reports that Dolan voted against Michael Jordan's recent sale of the Charlotte Hornets as well as the WNBA expansion into San Francisco.
This revelation comes in the wake of the Knicks seeking $10 million in damages from the Raptors in a lawsuit they filed in August over alleged theft of proprietary information. In the court filing, which was obtained by CBS Sports, the Knicks allege that the Raptors' head of video and an assistant player development coach, Ikechukwu Azotam, used his previous position with the Knicks to steal "play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files and materials and more" before taking a new job with the Raptors.
The Knicks allege that Azotam did so under the orders of Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. The Knicks are also arguing that Silver should not mediate the situation as Raptors owner Larry Tanenbaum "serves as Silver's boss and exercises control over and heavily influences Silver's continued employment and salary." The Knicks filing also described Tanenbaum as a "close ally" to Silver, as the commissioner has described the Raptors owner as "not just my boss as the chairman of the board of governors, but he's very much a role model in my life."
The Raptors have previously denied all accusations and filed a motion back in October to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it "baseless" and a "public relations stunt."
