Noel sues Rich Paul

[bleachkit]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32079344/new-york-knicks-nerlens-noel-sues-rich-paul-klutch-claiming-loss-58m-potential-salary

I hope this serves a cautionary tale about signing with Klutch. For Trae, he will get the max, no worries for him. But if you're a role player that is not friends with LeBron, Rich Paul is a terrible agent. His handling of Noel was criminal. 

[bleachkit]

Here's another article about it. Extremely unprofessional behavior from Rich Paul. https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-c-nerlens-noel-sues-agent-rich-paul-nba-232914914.html

 

[capstone21]

Says a lot about Paul.  You would think a dude who was selling jerseys out of his car would take his situation more seriously and treat all his clients with respect.

[marco102]

2 hours ago, bleachkit said:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32079344/new-york-knicks-nerlens-noel-sues-rich-paul-klutch-claiming-loss-58m-potential-salary

I hope this serves a cautionary tale about signing with Klutch. For Trae, he will get the max, no worries for him. But if you're a role player that is not friends with LeBron, Rich Paul is a terrible agent. His handling of Noel was criminal. 

Trae's agent, Omar Wilkes took over Klutch's basketball operations.  That's why Trae and Cam are now with Klutch.  Rich Paul doesn't have much to do with Trae.

This may be why Omar is there.  

[AHF]

Noel is going to have a very hard time with the big claim - the turning down of the $70M offer from Dallas at the start of the relationship and betting on him getting a better deal the next offseason.  That offer was already in Noel's hands and he fired his current agent to turn it and down and move to Paul.  Going to be very tough to show that it was anything but a bet on himself and his injury and performance was what undermined it.

The allegations that they didn't return calls after the next two seasons seem more promising but how much more he could have gotten at that point is going to be pretty tough to prove.  

Either way, clearly showing why Paul was a terrible agent for Noel.  Bad advice on the front end and then poor (at best) representation after that.

[JeffS17]

9 minutes ago, AHF said:

Noel is going to have a very hard time with the big claim - the turning down of the $70M offer from Dallas at the start of the relationship and betting on him getting a better deal the next offseason.  That offer was already in Noel's hands and he fired his current agent to turn it and down and move to Paul.  Going to be very tough to show that it was anything but a bet on himself and his injury and performance was what undermined it.

The allegations that they didn't return calls after the next two seasons seem more promising but how much more he could have gotten at that point is going to be pretty tough to prove.  

Either way, clearly showing why Paul was a terrible agent for Noel.  Bad advice on the front end and then poor (at best) representation after that.

Yeah, agreed.  Really feels like this might be some bad PR for Klutch/Rich Paul but I can't see anything else coming out of it, especially from a legal perspective.  What sucks is how heavily these guys rely on their agents to make decisions for them around their career, beyond what the agent is contractually obligated to do.  The decision to turn down the money was ultimately Noels and he will find peace when he accepts that and moves on.

[Sothron]

The not returning calls from other teams and passing on potential offers to Noel is the big, big no no. Noel only has himself to blame for turning down the 70 million dollar deal from the Mavs. He was given bad advise to be fair but that's different from outright negligence in duty. That, however, is covered by Paul's refusal to take offers from other teams and pass those deals along to Noel.

I think he has a case here. If nothing else every non superstar player will know to never trust Rich Paul or his agency.

[marco102]

7 minutes ago, Sothron said:

The not returning calls from other teams and passing on potential offers to Noel is the big, big no no. Noel only has himself to blame for turning down the 70 million dollar deal from the Mavs. He was given bad advise to be fair but that's different from outright negligence in duty. That, however, is covered by Paul's refusal to take offers from other teams and pass those deals along to Noel.

I think he has a case here. If nothing else every non superstar player will know to never trust Rich Paul or his agency.

The not returning calls is an allegation, not proven.

It'll be interesting to see what comes out in court. 

[Sothron]

1 minute ago, marco102 said:

The not returning calls is an allegation, not proven.

It'll be interesting to see what comes out in court. 

Assuming he's telling the truth which I think he is then that's a big problem for Rich Paul. 

[kg01]

3 minutes ago, Sothron said:

The not returning calls from other teams and passing on potential offers to Noel is the big, big no no. Noel only has himself to blame for turning down the 70 million dollar deal from the Mavs. He was given bad advise to be fair but that's different from outright negligence in duty. That, however, is covered by Paul's refusal to take offers from other teams and pass those deals along to Noel.

I think he has a case here. If nothing else every non superstar player will know to never trust Rich Paul or his agency.

To be fair, it's every non superstar player that doesn't play with Lebron.  The roleguys that happen to be on his team get overpaid due to his influence/presence.

I see where you're coming from though.  Previously, I couldn't understand why any of the non-Lebron teammate roleplayers go to that agency.  It seemed to exist only to serve Lebron's needs.  Seems they shuffled things in recent years to make it less Lebron-centric though, to their credit.

But I highly doubt this story would scare folks from falling in their Klutches (see what I did there?).  I'm noticing a lot of young people, in general, are followers.  They'll say, "Aw, that was just him.  That'd never happen to me."

[Sothron]

2 hours ago, kg01 said:

To be fair, it's every non superstar player that doesn't play with Lebron.  The roleguys that happen to be on his team get overpaid due to his influence/presence.

I see where you're coming from though.  Previously, I couldn't understand why any of the non-Lebron teammate roleplayers go to that agency.  It seemed to exist only to serve Lebron's needs.  Seems they shuffled things in recent years to make it less Lebron-centric though, to their credit.

But I highly doubt this story would scare folks from falling in their Klutches (see what I did there?).  I'm noticing a lot of young people, in general, are followers.  They'll say, "Aw, that was just him.  That'd never happen to me."

Random thought on what you said last. My Dad always told me to watch how a boss or anyone in power treats the person lowest on the totem pole. That reveals who that person actually is. It sounds like Rich Paul is the ideal case in how that applies to sports agents. 

[kg01]

21 minutes ago, Sothron said:

Random thought on what you said last. My Dad always told me to watch how a boss or anyone in power treats the person lowest on the totem pole. That reveals who that person actually is. It sounds like Rich Paul is the ideal case in how that applies to sports agents. 

That axiom is true for just about every relationship in life.

Like watch how your girlfriend treats your wife.  That'll tell you everything you need to know about her. 

Ok, that last bit was a joke but you know what I'm saying, Juanjo.

[Diesel]

3 hours ago, AHF said:

Noel is going to have a very hard time with the big claim - the turning down of the $70M offer from Dallas at the start of the relationship and betting on him getting a better deal the next offseason.  That offer was already in Noel's hands and he fired his current agent to turn it and down and move to Paul.  Going to be very tough to show that it was anything but a bet on himself and his injury and performance was what undermined it.

The allegations that they didn't return calls after the next two seasons seem more promising but how much more he could have gotten at that point is going to be pretty tough to prove.  

Either way, clearly showing why Paul was a terrible agent for Noel.  Bad advice on the front end and then poor (at best) representation after that.

I agree...  He would have to have paper promise that Paul could guarantee him making 100 Million and I don't think RP is that stupid.  However, I do wonder if he has a better case for professional negligence if Noel can prove that RP never acted on any of the calls that others made asking about Noel.  If there was no formal offer made, is Paul accountable?  Or if these persons called with an offer, is Paul accountable?  And does Noel have to prove that Paul never spoke to him about any of these deals?

 

I Think that's why Noel went after the 70 Million dollar lose instead of anything else... because that's the only offer he could prove. 

 

[Diesel]

2 hours ago, Sothron said:

Assuming he's telling the truth which I think he is then that's a big problem for Rich Paul. 

IMO.. There's way too much to prove though.  He would have to prove that:

1.  An offer was made. 

2.   RP didn't tell him about the offer. 

If RP went to court and said I told Noel about every offer that was sent to me..  then it becomes a case of he said he said.   Noel would have to Perry Mason that thing and get RP admit to not telling him about offers... which I don't see happening. 

 

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, Sothron said:

Random thought on what you said last. My Dad always told me to watch how a boss or anyone in power treats the person lowest on the totem pole. That reveals who that person actually is. It sounds like Rich Paul is the ideal case in how that applies to sports agents. 

I love that. 

[Spud2nique]

40 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Like watch how your girlfriend treats your wife. 

At :25 is where we plead  

 

[AHF]

1 hour ago, Diesel said:

I agree...  He would have to have paper promise that Paul could guarantee him making 100 Million and I don't think RP is that stupid.  However, I do wonder if he has a better case for professional negligence if Noel can prove that RP never acted on any of the calls that others made asking about Noel.  If there was no formal offer made, is Paul accountable?  Or if these persons called with an offer, is Paul accountable?  And does Noel have to prove that Paul never spoke to him about any of these deals?

 

I Think that's why Noel went after the 70 Million dollar lose instead of anything else... because that's the only offer he could prove. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Diesel said:

IMO.. There's way too much to prove though.  He would have to prove that:

1.  An offer was made. 

2.   RP didn't tell him about the offer. 

If RP went to court and said I told Noel about every offer that was sent to me..  then it becomes a case of he said he said.   Noel would have to Perry Mason that thing and get RP admit to not telling him about offers... which I don't see happening. 

 

Those things are actually not that hard to prove.  Execs from other teams could be deposed and if their calls weren't returned by the agents that is already proven.  There are going to be a lot of circumstantial evidence that is going to be admissible as well such as if Noel has emails to his agents asking why he isn't getting any offers, etc. then that will strongly support his side of things and undermine any "we did tell him about it" kind of claim.  This part of the case might be the strongest (the part about calls going unreturned, etc.).  

[marco102]

17 minutes ago, AHF said:

 

Those things are actually not that hard to prove.  Execs from other teams could be deposed and if their calls weren't returned by the agents that is already proven.  There are going to be a lot of circumstantial evidence that is going to be admissible as well such as if Noel has emails to his agents asking why he isn't getting any offers, etc. then that will strongly support his side of things and undermine any "we did tell him about it" kind of claim.  This part of the case might be the strongest (the part about calls going unreturned, etc.).  

To me, it seems like a lot here are just assuming Noel is telling the truth. I'd like to see this play out in court before making Rich Paul out to be this terrible agent. 

Not saying Noel isn't telling the truth, but there are a lot of RP is crap in this thread and already assuming he is guilty. 

[EazyRoc]

51 minutes ago, marco102 said:

To me, it seems like a lot here are just assuming Noel is telling the truth. I'd like to see this play out in court before making Rich Paul out to be this terrible agent. 

Not saying Noel isn't telling the truth, but there are a lot of RP is crap in this thread and already assuming he is guilty. 

Because weirdly enough, a lot of people don’t like Rich Paul for some reason and this story just confirms their pre-existing biases.

[LucastheThird]

This case could set a bad precedent for the league and agents going forward. If Noel can prove that his agent was responsible for him not signing that deal, then you will have guys like Schröder suing their agents for the contracts they passed up on. IDK how Noel is going to be able to prove without a shadow of doubt that RP is responsible for him not signing that contract, it's not like RP held a gun to his head and told him not to do it.