New York Supreme Court Judge Eileen Bransten has dismissed the lawsuit NBA agent Andy Miller and his agency, ASM Sports, brought against rival firm Relativity Sports over Bucks C Larry Sanders switching agencies last year. Bransten granted Relativity Sports’ motion to dismiss the case -- which named Relativity Sports, CEO Happy Walters and Relativity Basketball President Dan Fegan as defendants -- saying the lawsuit failed on a legal basis. “Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint is granted for failure to state a cause of action,” Bransten wrote, in a 17-page decision issued earlier this month. Miller and ASM brought the case last year, alleging tortious interference with business relations, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition, among other things. "This just shows that Andy was wrong; was trying to be malicious; and looks silly," said Walters, who is also co-President of Relativity Sports parent company Relativity Media. ASM General Counsel J.R. Hensley in a statement said, "It is unfortunate that such a blatant disregard for the agent regulations by Relativity is not viewed with more disgust. We remain confident in our claim, as the legal process has not been exhausted. We intend to vigorously pursue our rights either by appeal or through other forums." The case received a lot of media attention, since it was filed last October after Relativity negotiated a four-year, $44M extension with the Bucks for Sanders that August. Miller had negotiated a four-year, $41M extension for him when Sanders fired him in July '13. The lawsuit also garnered a lot of press because it contained a number of salacious claims against Relativity, including allegations that the agency and its representatives used “private planes, celebrity encounters and hedonistic parties” to induce Sanders to fire Miller and ASM.
BREAKING THEIR SILENCE: Relativity reps have previously declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation. But Walters yesterday said he wanted to speak out now that the lawsuit, which contained what he called "a couple of crazy accusations," had been thrown out by a judge. Walters said the allegations were false. "Both Dan and I moved on already, but now we don’t have to answer the questions anymore," Walters said. Relativity Sports President Josh Swartz said, "Basically there are no facts to support the underlying claims. At the end of the day, anyone can accuse anyone of anything, and this is exactly what happened. We have become successful in a very short period of time and it’s a shame that guys like Andy are trying to take shots at us that are completely unfounded.” Relativity Sports was launched by Relativity Media, a film and television studio, in the summer of '12. That next summer, Relativity Sports negotiated $397.5M in NBA player contracts, more than any other agency. “It’s nice to be vindicated by a third party, but for us nothing changes,” Swartz said. “We did nothing to run afoul of any regulations or any law and we are going to continue to build the best practice in all the sports we are in,” Swartz said. Walters had originally represented Sanders prior to him hiring Miller in '11. Sanders re-hired Walters and Fegan, who both negotiated the $44M deal.
HOW THE BUSINESS WORKS: Relativity Sports VP/Legal Heather Brooks Karatz said the case never got to the deposition or discovery phase because the judge found there was no legal cause of action for the claims. “What the judge really realized off the bat is, the nature of sports agencies in the business, is that athletes change agents frequently. That is sort of how this business is. That is how it works. When a player feels they are not getting adequate representation, they decide to make the switch. And all that happened here is Larry Sanders decided to return to Happy and Dan and Relativity after being previously represented by him and get better representation.” She said that it was important to Relativity to defend the lawsuit aggressively to protect its reputation in the industry. “None of those allegations are true,” Karatz said. “The fact is they threw out all sorts of allegations in connection with our business, but that is not how we do business. We wanted to send a strong message here. I know that Relativity is a relatively new agency on the block, but we are here and proud of what we are doing. We are not going to sit idly by and let people make baseless allegations against us."
