Orlando lawyer versus the NBA over a partnership deal with Emirates Airline

An Orlando lawyer is going up against the NBA as he represents a California businessman accusing the basketball league of icing him out of a partnership deal with Emirates Airline.

Paul Edalat, an American-Iranian executive in the pharmaceutical industry, claims he was asked to facilitate a partnership deal in 2014 between the NBA and Emirates to help expose U.S. professional basketball to the Middle East.

Edalat accused the NBA of going behind his back years later to approve the 2024 deal and taking advantage of Edalat’s previous work and contacts, according to his federal lawsuit against NBA Properties, NBA’s marketing, merchandising and licensing arm.

“The NBA had long pursued establishing relationships with corporate partners worldwide to expand the NBA’s global presence,” Edalat’s lawsuit said. “To the NBA, entering a sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline would have been a major step in furthering the NBA’s global brand, especially Middle East and North Africa. One problem, however, existed. Despite efforts to secure any partnership with Emirates Airline as early as 2013, the NBA was unable to secure a deal, in part because of the cultural differences between the USA-centric NBA business practices and the traditional value-based culture of Emirates Airlines, and the NBA’s limited experience dealing with the decision-makers at Emirates Airline.”

Edalat said he was asked by his friend, KiKi VanDeWeghe, then NBA’s Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, to negotiate the NBA deal since Edalat knew the Middle East and business and government leaders in Dubai.

Edalat’s lawsuit said he was promised 10% of the sponsorship agreement and any future partnership between the NBA and Emirates Airline. 

Edalat’s 10% cut was agreed to verbally by both parties, which Edalat’s lawyer Tucker Byrd said was legally enforceable. 

“You can have an oral contract for services and particularly when it’s performed,” Tucker said. “He did what he’s supposed to do.”

An email in the lawsuit contains a 2014 email from VanDeWeghe to Edalat that said, “| want to confirm our interest in having discussions with Emirates Airline about partnership opportunities within the NBA. The airline sponsorship category is currently open and everyone here is excited about the possibility of a partnership with Emirates.”

Edalat began working his contacts and later traveled to Dubai in May 2014 with a letter from VanDeWeghe about the NBA’s interest in partnering with the airline.

“The wheels had been set in motion and momentum was building to pursue a sponsorship agreement between the NBA and Emirates Airline with Edalat the tip of that negotiation spear,” the lawsuit said.

“The discussions between the NBA and Emirates Airline, however, cooled off in 2014. VanDeWeghe advised Edalat that the NBA was renegotiating the Delta Airlines deal, and that Emirates Airline was not overly eager about a sponsorship with the NBA,” the lawsuit said. “VanDeWeghe advised Edalat to temporarily back off from his activities while the NBA regrouped on its plans for an Emirates Airlines deal. The Delta Airlines deal, announced in 2015, was a continuation of a 2004 sponsorship deal between Delta Airlines and the NBA.”

A few months later, Edalat emailed VanDeWeghe to tell him Emirates was back at the table and could approve up to a $6 million sponsorship “fairly quickly,” according to a July 2015 message that Edalat wrote was “highly confidential.”

Then talks collapsed a second time, and the NBA signed a 10-year deal with Delta Airlines.

In 2024, NBA announced a multiyear global marketing partnership with Emirates Airline the “Official Global Airline Partner of the NBA” which came as a surprise to Edalat who had not been involved. The partnership involved NBA games played on Emirates flights, Emirates sponsoring the Emirates NBA Cup and more.

The deal was announced by Mark Tatum, the NBA’s Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, who Edalat said he had been working with years earlier, the lawsuit said.

Edalat said he first learned of the deal with his since retired friend, VanDeWeghe, contacted him and told him “‘look into’ the sponsorship transaction, a strong nod that Edalat had been cut out of the deal,” the lawsuit said. 

“Despite the years which had elapsed since Edalat, and his cohort, introduced and facilitated discussions between the NBA and Emirates Airline, the NBA and Emirates Airline picked up their discussions right where they had been left off years earlier—before the Delta Airlines renewal—between the same persons, negotiating the same deal, proving the negotiations had been paused, not irreversibly terminated. What Edalat had set in motion years earlier had now come into fruition,” Edalat’s lawsuit said. “The value of the sponsorship between the NBA and Emirates, and the ancillary financial arrangements between the two, could reach a staggering amount, easily in the tens of millions, and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars.”

But when Edalat contacted the NBA seeking his 10%, the NBA sent a letter back that said, “We have no record and are not aware of any agreement between the NBA and Edalat,” 

To deny the NBA didn’t know who Edalat was, “That I think is the most shocking position for the NBA to take of all,” Tucker said.

Edalat, who lives in California,  is now suing for more than $500,000 in a lawsuit that was first filed in Orange County Circuit Court, then federal court in Orlando, and is now being transferred to New York where the NBA is located.

“I’ll play on any court, anywhere. Your court, my court. I’ll try this case on a playground if you want to,” Tucker said. “We want to get to the merits of this.”

Today, Edalat is dealing with other legal problems. In 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Edalat over allegations he misled potential investors as CEO of Vivera Pharmaceuticals. The lawsuit is pending in California federal court.

“The NBA acted like they had never heard of Paul Edalat, so it’d be hard for them to say that they shied away from him because of the SEC,” Tucker said.

The NBA and Emirates did not respond to a request for comment for this story.