Rich Paul is one of the best agents in the NBA right now and is the head of agency Klutch Sports, which represents many stars such as LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Many know him for his association with James, which began when the superstar was just a teenager.
Recently, Rich Paul opened up about meeting LeBron James as a teenager, noting that he could play a variety of roles.
“I used to style LeBron his rookie year,” Paul said, per Tania Ganguli of The New York Times. “I could be anything. I could be a stylist, music executive, coach.”
“Mr. James was a teenager when he met Mr. Paul, who had a jersey resale business sometimes run out of the trunk of his car. Soon, Mr. James was paying him $48,000 a year, confident Mr. Paul was worth the investment.”
It is clear that Rich Paul was absolutely worth the investment from LeBron James. He is now a highly successful businessman and agent, and a powerful figure associated with the NBA. He took the opportunity given to him and ran with it, and the rest is history.
Rich Paul Has Criticized People In NBA Players’ Circles That Don’t Do Anything
There is no doubt that NBA players often have regular people who are part of their entourage. Sometimes, those people don’t necessarily provide any positive impact on the player. Rich Paul once criticized freeloaders who hang around NBA players, noting that there’s no reason people shouldn’t have a job when in a player’s entourage.
“There’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a job if you’re in the ecosystem of an athlete. An athlete needs a barber, security, a driver, a babysitter, needs just a handyman. If you equate that with getting rich, that’s not gonna happen. The only person getting rich is the player. But what is your value? You can’t be on the couch when he’s got shootaround. That don’t work. If he’s late to shootaround, that’s your fault. Cause when the bills come in, who’s paying?”
This stance from Rich Paul makes absolute sense, as he is clearly someone who has made himself useful as part of LeBron James’ camp. He clearly wants others in players’ camps to follow his example and try to provide some sort of service that helps the players.
Rich Paul Got His Clients A Lot Of Money In Free Agency
The reason that many view Rich Paul highly as an agent is due to his track record of getting his clients the deals that they desire. In fact, the 2023 free agency was a huge success for Paul.
It was previously revealed that Rich Paul got his clients a combined $390 million in free agency this past summer, which is a staggering amount. Draymond Green signed a four-year deal for $100 million to stay with the Warriors, Jerami Grant agreed to a deal with the Trail Blazers for five years, $160 million, and Fred VanVleet got a three-year, $130 million deal from the Rockets.
It is clear that the best is yet to come for Rich Paul. His notoriety among NBA players is already huge, and it is quite possible that Klutch Sports will move heavily into other sports sooner rather than later. We will see how many more deals Paul will get his clients, and there is a lot of money to be earned by players who sign with him.
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