Rich Paul has another angry former client.
Retired ex-Miami Heat champion Norris Cole appeared this week on the “OGs Podcast” with his old Heat teammates Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller. During the episode, Cole spoke about his former agent Paul of Klutch Sports and said that Paul cost him tens of millions through botched free agent negotiations.
“I had a powerful agent, and I let him do everything, all the negotiating,” said Cole. “I didn’t even think twice about it. But he did some bad negotiations. I caught wind of it late, and I ended up firing him.
“And when you fire a powerful agent, of course they’re going to save face,” Cole added. “That’s what happened. They tried to make it seem like I was the greedy one.”
Cole added that he believes that the situation cost him “probably” $70 million-$80 million.
Now 37 years old, Cole played in the NBA from 2011-17 and then went onto a lengthy career overseas. Cole, who is still currently playing professionally in Uruguay, won back-to-back championships with the Heat from 2012-13 and also later played for the New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder.
While Cole never mentioned Paul by name, Paul did represent Cole from 2014-16. In 2015, Cole accepted a one-year, $3 million qualifying offer from the New Orleans Pelicans and then went unsigned as an unrestricted free agent in 2016. Cole ultimately fired Paul at that point and believes that Paul then started a smear campaign on him, resulting in Cole never making it back into the league (save for a brief 13-game stint with the Thunder in 2017).
Cole was obviously a role player at best and averaged just 7.0 points and 2.7 assists per game over his NBA career. But considering the absurd money that was handed out in free agency as a result of the one-year salary cap spike in 2016 (e.g. $75 million for Allen Crabbe, $72 million for Bismack Biyombo, $64 million for Timofey Mozgov, etc.), Cole might not be too far off with his estimate on how much Paul cost him.
Paul is the best-known agent in the NBA today and represents some big names, including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, De’Aaron Fox, and Tyrese Maxey. But Paul has had plenty of misses over the years with lower-tier NBA clients and was once even sued a few years back by another former client who claimed that Paul cost him massive money through bad representation.
