Adele’s Boyfriend Rich Paul Sued By Former Client Knicks Star Nerlens Noel For Allegedly Costing Him $58 Million, Being Too Focused On LeBron James
Aug. 25 2021, Published 10:59 a.m. ET
Adele’s sports agent boyfriend Rich Paul is being sued by his former client Knicks center Nerlens Noel for allegedly causing him to lose out of $58 million.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Noel accuses Paul and his company Klutch Sports Group of breach of contract. Noel says his agent forever was a man named Happy Walters.
Around the 2016/2017 season, Noel became a free agent and was offered a $70 million contract by the Dallas Mavericks. Around the same time, he claims to have been training in Los Angeles with Ben Simmons from the 76ers.
He met Rich Paul at a party at Simmons’ birthday. Noel says he was impressed with Richs’s roster of clients including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, and Trae Young.
During the meeting, Paul made a pitch to become Noel’s agent. He told the NBA star he should not accept anything less than $100 million. He told Noel to terminate his deal with his agent Happy Walters and sign with him.
Noel eventually fired Walters and hired Paul. He says LeBron’s agent had him agree to sign a $4.1 million one-year deal with Dallas. However, during the season, he had a ton of health issues and only played 30 games. The basketball star says Paul began to lose interest in him.
He claims the following season, neither Paul nor anyone from his team reached out with ideas on how to secure him a long-term contract.
He says despite Paul not doing any work, Russell Westbrook and Paul George recruited him to play for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He signed a two-year $3.75 million deal.
He says this season he did much better and became a fan favorite. Noel says he took Paul’s advice and turned down an option to play with the Thunder for year two.
He was once again a free agent but claims Paul screwed him over by not doing any work for him. Noel says he was forced to sign yet another one-year contract with Oklahoma for $1.9 million.
He claims to have later learned that people were calling Paul for Noel, but he wasn’t answering or returning the messages.
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The NBA star says he continued to stay with Paul and his agency due to their repeated promises and reassurances. Eventually, Noel had enough and fired Paul and his team in December 2020.
He claims to have learned that Paul had a history of ignoring his lesser known clients and focusing on his “marquee” clients. Noel says if Paul never stepped in he would have signed a $70 million contract with Dallas over four years. He believes to have lost out on $58 million as a result.
