Union expected to settle case between Nerlens Noel, former agent Rich Paul, per report

In a situation where there will be no “winner”, Nerlens Noel is suing his former agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, over the potential loss of $58 million. The New York Knicks big man claims that Paul led him to turn down a $70 million contract offer only to then put Noel on the backburner as a client. Paul, obviously, denies these claims.

According to an article published by Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, the National Basketball Players Union is expected to “settle some type of agreement between these two parties, being that a legitimate legal battle benefits neither Klutch nor Noel. For Noel to win $58 million in alleged lost salary, he would seemingly face a daunting uphill battle in a court of law.”

On Rich Paul schadenfreude around the league, Nerlens Noel’s uphill battle in a court of law, and one of the NBPA’s longstanding dilemmas—agents poaching clients from other agents—being dragged into the sunlight, at @BR_NBA: https://t.co/Vb8KDKL4ju

— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) August 27, 2021

To help bring you to speed on the actual context within the situation, here’s what we know.

The lawsuit claims that Nerlens Noel lost $58 million in potential salary while being represented by Paul from 2017-20. According to ESPN, “Noel claims breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and negligence. The lawsuit doesn’t cite a specific amount of damages but asks for actual and punitive relief.”

The official Complaint states that Rich Paul purposefully went out of his way to interfere with Noel’s relationship with Happy Walters, who represented Noel once he was drafted out of Kentucky. Paul apparently told Noel in 2017 that he was a “100 million man” and that Noel would be able to attract a maximum contract if he dropped Walters for Klutch Sports.

Not long after that, Noel did sign with Paul and Klutch Sports, then turned down the four-year, $70 million deal that the Dallas Mavericks had offered him. Instead, he signed a one-year, $4.1 million qualifying offer with the franchise in hopes of cashing in on a bigger contract the following offseason. Unfortunately, Noel would only play 30 games in 2017-18 due to surgery that was required to repair a torn ligament in his thumb.

Since then, Noel has signed two, one-year deals with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the veteran minimum and then a one-year, $5 million deal with the Knicks ahead of the 2020-21 season. The Complaint goes on to state that Paul neglected Noel as a client and played little role in helping him find lucrative contracts.

Noel left Klutch Sports in Dec. 2020, saying that Paul “had a history of mismanaging and ignoring other clients and costing them significant money.”, according to the SportsAgentBlog. Noel’s current deal with the Knicks, which he signed in early August worth $32 million over three years, was negotiated by his current agent George Langberg of GSL Sports Agency.

It will be incredibly tough for Noel to prove that Paul was being negligent, considering Noel turned down the offer from Dallas under his own power. The majority of his case will likely be supported on the claims that multiple NBA franchises reached out to Noel during the most recent free agency cycle, only to hear crickets in response. That being said, recouping $58 million on that argument probably won’t be enough.

It feels like a settlement is the best-case scenario for both parties at this point.