Nerlens Noel, Rich Paul and the Klutch Sports Group have agreed to settle their ongoing legal dispute, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Noel will now pay Paul his full commission on the $5 million salary he earned with the New York Knicks during the 2020-21 season and withdraw all pending legal proceedings related to the case, according to Charania.
The saga began all the way back in 2017. Noel was a member of the Dallas Mavericks at the time, and agent Happy Walters negotiated a four-year, $70 million offer for Noel to remain in Texas. Noel, acting on the advice of Paul, rejected that offer and took the one-year $4.1 million qualifying offer from Dallas hoping it would allow him to cash in on a bigger deal, with Paul as his agent, as an unrestricted free agent in 2018.
Obviously, that didn’t happen. Noel had a tumultuous season in Dallas and only managed to secure a $3.75 million deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Noel made just $12.7 million over the four-year period in which Dallas would have paid him $70 million. He sued Paul in the aftermath for the $58 million difference and alleged that Paul failed to take calls from teams interested in signing him, including the Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets.
The case was ultimately dismissed by a judge in September because the Standard Player Agent Contract stipulates that these matters be settled through arbitration.
Throughout the process, though, Paul alleged that Noel — who currently plays for the Detroit Pistons — had not paid a commission on the $5 million contract he signed with the Knicks prior to the 2020-21 season. That commission would have come out to roughly $200,000, but now Noel, as part of the settlement, has agreed to pay that commission, ending the saga.
Nerlens Noel to pay Klutch Sports’ Rich Paul full commission on 2020 deal to settle legal dispute, per report
- Advertisment - 