Nerlens Noel filed a lawsuit against his former agent Rich Paul and Klutch Sports Group.
Direct link to the lawsuit
News article
Obviously, the idea that Rich Paul has steered clients towards LeBron James (to whom he owes his career, stemming from a chance encounter at the Akron airport) is not a new accusation. It was recently a main subject of a long-form New Yorker article. However, Noel’s claim further asserts that Paul’s dedication to his star players causes him to provide negligent representation to his lesser-known players.
A big part of this story is that Noel turned down the Mavericks’ $70 million dollar contract offer in favor of the qualifying offer, which resulted in Noel signing for the league minimum a year later. Clearly Noel and Paul made the wrong choice, but the most damning allegation is that Paul essentially stopped doing his job on behalf of Noel and he had to do his own legwork to get offers from the Thunder and Knicks.
Direct link to the lawsuit
News article
Obviously, the idea that Rich Paul has steered clients towards LeBron James (to whom he owes his career, stemming from a chance encounter at the Akron airport) is not a new accusation. It was recently a main subject of a long-form New Yorker article. However, Noel’s claim further asserts that Paul’s dedication to his star players causes him to provide negligent representation to his lesser-known players.
A big part of this story is that Noel turned down the Mavericks’ $70 million dollar contract offer in favor of the qualifying offer, which resulted in Noel signing for the league minimum a year later. Clearly Noel and Paul made the wrong choice, but the most damning allegation is that Paul essentially stopped doing his job on behalf of Noel and he had to do his own legwork to get offers from the Thunder and Knicks.
During the free agent season which began on July 1, 2018, and after Noel’s one-year contract with Dallas expired, neither Paul nor anyone at Klutch Sports presented any real proposals to Noel in terms of strategies or ideas on how Noel might secure a long-term contract or even a significant contract for the following season. Indeed, as the 2018 NBA free agent season began, no real offers or deals were presented to Noel on the first day of free agency.
Nonetheless, Russell Westbrook and Paul George, then of the Oklahoma City Thunder, recruited Noel to come join them and play for the Thunder. As a result, Noel ended up signing a two-year, $3.75 million, league minimum deal with Oklahoma City on July 6, 2018.
Noel learned from his former coach with the 76ers, Brett Brown, who was still with the 76ers, that the 76ers front office had been trying to contact Paul to discuss the possibility of signing Noel to a contract where he would return to the 76ers. However, Paul did not take and/or return any of the calls from the 76ers. Noel also learned that Paul was not returning or taking calls from other team representatives who were interested in signing Noel for their respective teams.
On the first day of the free agency period, and despite the prior representations of Mr. Newton, Noel did not hear from a single team. Noel spoke with Mr. Newton that night, and Mr. Newton advised Noel that the Oklahoma City deal was still in play and that they were just trying to move money around on the books to create cap space for the deal. However, Noel later learned that representatives from the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers were trying to contact Paul, but that Paul was not taking or returning those calls.