Nerlens Noel of the Philadelphia 76ers is reportedly facing a lawsuit because of the condition he left a rented house in when he moved out.
Nerlens Noel is not helping all of the bad press that the Philadelphia 76ers have gotten over the past few days. The organization is currently under fire for the handling of the resignation of Sam Hinkie, and now Nerlens is showing up in TMZ for reportedly being sued by his former landlords.
This is not the first, nor is it the second time a Sixers player has shown up on TMZ this season. Jahlil Okafor showed up on the site in October for a street fight outside of a Boston nightclub, and then again a few months later in a dash-cam video of a police car that pulled him over for going 108 miles per hour on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
According to the legal documents, Noel was living a party-filled lifestyle in his leased apartment that cost him over $50,000 for one year. It looks as if Noel had reason to be unhappy with the owners on his way out, and left it destroyed for them to clean.
According to the TMZ report, Gatorade was — seemingly intentionally — spilled all over the carpets, the home was water damaged, and the toilets were filled with cotton balls and feces.
Additionally other applicants and windows were destroyed.
Marijuana was also found all over the home, and “roaches” were found in bathroom drawers.
The owners demanded payment for the destruction from Noel, and the day after they did, a tombstone with “RIP” appeared on their doorstep. The tombstone looks like a playful joke, but still, it’s a death threat at its bare bones, and the owners believe it was from Noel.
Pictures of the damage and the tombstone are available in the TMZ report.
Nerlens is requesting his security deposit be returned to him.
His home was shown off in Barstool Sports earlier this season. I can’t confirm for sure that this is the same one that he moved out of in August, but there is an elevator highlighted in this video, and an elevator is detailed in his lawsuit as well. The video was published in November 2015, but could have been recorded earlier. That’s not likely though, as this was notably published the same day that Noel visited Temple University after a November practice, and he is wearing the same exact outfit in the Barstool video as well.
Maybe Nerlens just really likes homes with elevators.
This is pretty disgusting to see coming from Nerlens, if it is in fact true. TMZ, although the motives of their reporting and story gathering are certainly up for question, is known for being pretty much spot on with most of their information.
What’s even more alarming is that Nerlens obviously had some sketchy stuff going down in his home. This type of lifestyle is not the one that fans want to see from a player who could potentially be leading them in the future when they hope to be competitive.
Hopefully next season the Sixers players stop doing things to get themselves put in TMZ.
Update
Upon being made available to the media for the first time since the news of the lawsuit came out, Noel told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer that he could not comment on the pending lawsuit, but that the “facts will speak for themselves.”
.@NerlensNoel3 on lawsuit :"I cannot comment while this lawsuit is pending. I will only say the facts will speak for themselves."
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) April 8, 2016
Noel seems to be implying that he was in the right by saying the facts speak for themselves, but based on the photos of the house, Noel seems to be a bit confused about the situation. Renting your first house is almost never a perfect experience.