Lebron James met Rich Paul when he was selling sports jerseys out of the back of his car. As the relationship grew, so did Rich Paul's success and now Rich Paul is the CEO of a booming sports agency, Klutch Sports Group. But does Lebron have an inappropriate influence over Klutch Sports because of his ties to Rich Paul? Or is Lebron completely isolated from the agency's activities?
In this two part episode, I use publicly available information to answer these questions. The question now becomes, will Adam Silver and the NBA do anything about this ongoing concern.
Part 2:
https://youtu.be/ZCgOr9DP5-I
Resources cited:
NBA Constitution and By-Laws, Article 35 Misconduct, Section (e)
NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, 36.3 Prohibition on Players as Agents
Conflict of interest on Wikipedia
ESPN NBA analyst Amin Elhassan talking about Lebron James, "You know his influence on the agency and who they represent."
NBA fines Anthony Davis citing comments made by Paul as "an intentional effort to undermine the contractual relationship between Davis and the Pelicans."
Unavailable Brian Windhorst podcast from July 25, 2017 where Windhorst reports, "LeBron doesn't have any ownership in Klutch Sports. The NBA investigated it and said LeBron doesn't have ownership." This after the NBA reportedly investigated whether or not James owned shares in the Klutch Sports Group agency.
NBC article with quote
Sports Illustrated article that reads:
Windhorst called it "laughable" to think James would be trying to get a cut of agent commissions, which cannot be more than four percent of a player's contract, and went on to explain that Klutch Sorts does not present James certain deals worth between $5 million to $10 million.
Bleacher Report article where Lebron's advisor, Adam Mendelson is quoted as saying, "He (Lebron) refers to Klutch as 'us' because Klutch is his family.":
Bleacher Report article with the headline:
"Pelicans' Anthony Davis Signs with LeBron James' Klutch Sports Agency"
Lebron James makes comments about playing with Anthony Davis:
"That would be amazing," James told ESPN. "That would be amazing, like, duh. That would be incredible."
Smug Lebron clip where he downplays his commenting on Anthony Davis playing for the Lakers:
ESPN article on the smug Lebron scrum:
"Come on, guys, this is not rocket science. These are great players. Absolutely. I would love to play with a lot of great players. That is just who I am."
Brian Windhorst "Hoop Collective" podcast (at 34:44) where "This particular situation, he was outside the scrum and he told Dave McMenamin he wanted it on the record. I can just tell you from knowing Lebron, he knew exactly what he was doing."
June 15, 2019, less than one year after signing with Klutch, Anthony Davis is traded to the Lakers
60 Minutes interview: Rich Paul states, "When it was someone that didn't look like me, it was genius, it was why you get a power agent but when it's me, I'm destroying the league? I mean, those things are absurd."
Chris Broussard article:
"If I don't have on that jersey, we don't have a conversation," Rich Paul says.
"There's no specific training to be an agent... Is Rich sophisticated enough? Well, he's sophisticated enough that he has LeBron."
#KlutchSports #RichPaul #LebronJames
https://inbetweengame.com/lebron-james-influence-klutch-rich-paul-conflict-interest-1/
