CLEVELAND — A Brecksville attorney and sports agent has filed a lawsuit against NBA superagent Rich Paul in federal court in Cleveland, alleging Paul breached the terms of a lucrative, long-standing business agreement between the pair's respective companies.
Mark Termini alleges he and his company, Mark Termini Associates, played a crucial role in securing player contracts that helped establish Paul's place among the upper echelon of NBA power brokers before Paul underpaid Termini on deals he negotiated on behalf of Paul's company, Klutch Sports Group, and eventually refused to honor the contract entirely. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on Tuesday, one day before some of Paul's clients — in particular one with a recognizable last name — were set to take center stage at the NBA's entry draft.
A Klutch Sports spokesperson told 3News media partner Cleveland.com that Termini's lawsuit is “inaccurate and misguided and will be addressed in the proper forum.”
Termini, a Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State law school graduate, founded MTA in 1986 and has negotiated around $2 billion in professional sports contracts, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint states Termini had already negotiated over $400 million in contracts when Paul, a Cleveland-born Benedictine High School alum, engaged Termini to collaborate with his newly founded KSG in 2012 after Paul left the powerhouse Creative Arts Agency. Paul had yet to negotiate a contract as an agent at that point, the suit claims.
Termini and Paul struck an agreement for Termini to exclusively run contract negotiations for KSG as an independent contractor. Termini was never an employee of KSG.
The agreement, which was formalized in March 2014 with an effective date of December 2, 2012, called for Termini to "provide contract negotiation, business advisory and other administrative and support services" to KSG in exchange for 25% of KSG and Paul's gross fee on any contract the agency negotiated, per the lawsuit. The agreement was extended for five years in 2016 "due to the extraordinary, highly successful and widely recognized contract negotiation performance by MTA and Termini on behalf of KSG and Paul," Termini's lawyers state.
Termini's team claims he devised and executed the strategy for all of KSG's player contract negotiations from 2014-19, controlling "all aspects of the decision-making process and the substantive information that was exchanged with the [NBA] Teams."
Under the agreement, Termini says he helped Paul's clients secure a number of high-profile contracts, including Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith's deals with the Cavaliers in 2015 and '16, respectively. The suit also alleges Termini masterminded LeBron James' 2014 return to Cleveland as a free agent and subsequent re-signings, securing James an extra $19 million through some creative deal-making.
The suit claims the relationship soured around 2018, when Paul and KSG "expressed a desire to pay MTA and Termini significantly less than the amounts required under the written terms of the Agreement." Termini's camp further claims Paul circumvented renegotiating the contract, instead simply submitting payments for less than the contract stipulated.
Termini purportedly refused to accept the lower rates, and "for a time," Paul allegedly resumed paying Termini in full. The suit states that Paul eventually refused to pay Termini the full terms of their contract, while also accusing Paul of sidestepping the contract in other ways such as hiring other negotiators in violation of Termini and Paul's exclusivity agreement and hiding contracts from MTA in order to avoid paying Termini agent services fees.
Termini also accused Paul of delaying two major NBA player signings until the day after MTA and KSG's contract expired on Dec. 2, 2020, in order to avoid Termini from collecting his percentage. Termini is seeking $4.9 million plus interest in damages.
