Judge Dismisses Cuttino Mobley's Lawsuit A federal judge Wednesday dismissed Cuttino Mobley's lawsuit against Madison Square Garden for forcing him to retire from the Knicks in 2008, soon after being acquired, because of a heart condition. Deborah A. Batts, a federal district court judge in Manhattan, said that Mobley had not proven he could perform his job after he received a diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle that can make the heart work harder to pump blood, from his doctors. Batts wrote that the Knicks did not have to accommodate Mobley by letting him play with a defibrillator implanted to shock his heart to life if it stopped. If the Knicks believed his condition "posed a direct threat to him," Batts said, "they were not required to engage in the accommodation process." Batts also said that Mobley showed only that he had been "qualified in the past" to perform his job satisfactorily, not that he could continue to play at that level. "Here," she added, "the uniqueness of a career as a professional basketball player and the associated extreme physical demands require plaintiff to allege facts specific to his present qualification in those circumstances." Upon retiring from the Knicks, Mobley credited the Knicks" medical staff for possibly saving his life. But he eventually blamed the team for depriving him of the ability to play basketball. His lawsuit claimed that several N.B.A. teams were interested in him, but backed off because of his condition. He also said that he knew that he had his condition since 1999, had been cleared to play by other teams and had never shown adverse symptoms like dizziness and collapses. But, he alleged, the Knicks sent him to doctors who were known for not allowing players with his condition to play. Mobley had been seeking unspecified damages in the lawsuit.