NEW YORK — Former NBA guard Cuttino Mobley filed a lawsuit against Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, accusing the New York Knicks of pressuring him to retire as a way to save approximately $19 million.

Mobley retired because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease, shortly after the Knicks acquired him from the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 21, 2008. He knew he had an irregularity with the heart, but an MRI exam the team ordered after his physical revealed the more serious condition.

The lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York contends the Knicks knew of Mobley’s condition, but pushed to make the trade anyway, then sent him to specialists they knew would oppose him playing, so insurance could pay his contract and it wouldn’t count against the luxury tax.