New York Knicks' Forward Nerlens Noel is reportedly suing his former agent Rich Paul for breach of contract and breach duty claiming he lost $58 Million in potential salary. This is coming after Rich Paul filed a grievance with the National Basketball Players Association over unpaid commission of $200K, from Noel’s previous one year deal with the Knicks' last season.
In the lawsuit Noel claims during Free Agency in 2017 Paul supposedly advised Noel to take a one year $4.1 million qualifying offer instead of the 4 years $70 million dollar contract the Dallas Mavericks were offering. This with the idea bet on yourself and you can likely make even more money when he would become an unrestricted free agent the following season. The most important distinction is that Paul did not become Noel’s agent until free agency was underway. Noel fired his initial agent with hopes of the following summer Paul would be able to get him a lucrative deal.
During the 2017 season Noel broke his hand and missed half the season. Once free agency came around that summer he ended signing for the minimum and playing the Oklahoma City Thunder for the next 2 seasons making just $3.7 million combined. Noel claims in the lawsuit teams reached out and Paul would not pick up the phone and also felt as though he wasn’t made a priority during the free agent process.
I believe this was a case of just receiving bad advice and also a bit of bad luck on the part of Noel. Because with him breaking his hand the season he was scheduled to go into free agency. This likely made some teams weary because he has always had nagging injuries which would likely mean he would never play a full season. Unfortunately he doesn’t have the skill set of Kevin Durant, or Kawhi Leonard who even though they were injured still received max deals in free agency. The one thing to take from this cautionary tale is don't leave money on the table especially when you have some history of injuries such as Noel who came into the league with a torn ACL from his only year at Kentucky.
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