Raptor Coach Sues Camby After Being Called ‘Liar’

Toronto Raptor Coach Butch Carter has filed a $5-million defamation suit against New York Knick forward Marcus Camby.

Carter, whose team faces the Knicks in the first round of the NBA playoffs today, filed the suit against his former player after Camby called the coach “a liar.”

Chris Brienza, a spokesman who handles public relations for Camby, confirmed Saturday that the suit had been filed Friday in state Supreme Court in White Plains.

Camby, traded to the Knicks from Toronto before the 1998-99 season, said this week that Carter had promised that the Raptors planned to build their team around him.

The trade quickly followed.

“He is a liar,” Camby said Wednesday before the Knicks played their final regular-season game at Boston. “. . . I don’t really like him. No one likes him and no one wants to play for him. That’s the kind of guy he is.

“I don’t trust him. . . . I think a lot of guys don’t trust him. He’s just been ratting out people and doing things his way. From what I hear, a lot of people are mad at him.”

Camby’s attorney, Patrick Noonan, did not return a call for comment Saturday.

Earlier, Noonan told www.hoopstv.com that the suit was “completely silly.”

“It appears that Mr. Carter would be better off served spending his time getting his team ready for the playoffs than pursuing these legal shenanigans,” he added.

Carter, asked Friday about the lawsuit, said, “No comment.”

Asked earlier about Camby’s comments, Carter described them as “totally inaccurate.”