CAVS STATEMENT REGARDING LAWSUIT FROM JIM BOYLAN
The Cleveland Cavaliers had an ‘option,’ in its sole discretion, to extend the contract of its former Assistant Coach Jim Boylan one additional year for the 2018-2019 NBA season.
The Cavaliers chose not to exercise its option to extend Mr. Boylan’s contract for the 2018-2019 season, a right that was fully and completely negotiated and executed in accordance with terms of the contract.
The contract between the Cavaliers and Mr. Boylan ended with the completion of the 2017-2018 NBA season.
Sometime over the past couple of months, Mr. Boylan hired the Cleveland, Ohio law firm of Thorman Petrov Group.
After Mr. Boylan hired this plaintiff firm, Christopher Thorman wrote to the Cavaliers initially to “informally” resolve matters related to Mr. Boylan’s employment, only to then follow up with an outrageous written demand for $6.174 million dollars. The demand was a precursor to a threat to file a lawsuit in the misguided hopes that embarrassing the Cavaliers by publishing Ty Lue’s voicemail would motivate a settlement. Thorman followed through with his threat yesterday.
The outrageousness of Mr. Boylan’s claim of ‘age discrimination’ due to the Cavaliers not exercising an option in a contract both parties signed cannot be overstated.
The only fact that exceeds the egregiousness of Mr. Boylan’s claim that he is owed any further compensation from the Cavaliers is the extortion attempts by Christopher Thorman demanding $6.174 million dollars when, had the one-year option been exercised for the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Boylan would have been paid $500,000 for his services. Mr. Thorman, as well as his law firm Thorman Petrov Group, has a pattern and practice of deploying these types of strategies.
This frivolous lawsuit is simply an opportunistically-timed effort at a shameless cash grab. The team will seek immediate dismissal of this disappointing, unwarranted and baseless claim.
