Knicks C Nerlens Noel files lawsuit against Rich Paul, Klutch Sports

Nerlens Noel is seeking damages for $58 million in lost earnings in a lawsuit against Rich Paul and Klutch Sports Group.

Fresh off a new contract with the New York Knicks this offseason, Nerlens Noel is looking to settle an old score. The veteran center is filing a lawsuit against NBA superagent Rich Paul and Klutch Sports Group — an agency co-owned by LeBron James — for costing Noel up to $58 million.

Noel is accusing Paul of luring him away from his agent and convincing him to turn down a massive offer before losing interest in him as a client. Noel alleges that Paul convinced him to turn down a four-year, $70 million offer on the table from the Dallas Mavericks.

He suffered an injury to his thumb and was never able to secure the long-term deal that Paul promised. The lawsuit also states that Paul refused to take calls from teams who were interested in Noel.

Darren Heitner of Sports Agent Blog sums up the lawsuit in a digestible way for non-lawyers:

“Noel wants to be made whole for losing what he says is $58 million in lost earnings after being led to leave Walters and pass up an offer from the Mavericks for $70 million over 4 years. He says that Paul breached his fiduciary duty by inducing Noel to terminate his representation agreement with Walters and then by failing to do any meaningful work on Noel’s behalf in terms of securing contracts, new endorsement deals, or by offering strategies to Noel on how to maximize his value and earnings.”

On the bright side for Noel, he recently inked a three-year, $32 million deal with the Knicks. For what it’s worth, he’s in a good place in his career. Although he is a backup when the Knicks are fully healthy, Tom Thibodeau puts a lot of faith in Noel.

In fact, Noel took over as the starting center when Mitchell Robinson went down with an injury last year. He finished third in blocks (141) and blocks per game (2.2) as well.