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The podcast medium is, among other things, an effective technology for getting people to say extremely ill-advised stuff in public. Ultra-powerful sports agents are no exception. Rich Paul, CEO of Klutch Sports Group and longtime agent to LeBron James, said some wild shit on Monday’s episode of Game Over, the podcast he launched last month with Max Kellerman.
If there’s a precedent for an active agent floating trade proposals that would directly affect his clients, I have not encountered it. That’s exactly what Paul did on the podcast episode, as he and Kellerman discussed roster moves for the Los Angeles Lakers, the team that employs James:
Rich Paul: The Lakers have options. If I was the Lakers, I would probably be targeting the Memphis Grizzlies as a trade partner.
Max Kellerman: For?
Paul: Jaren Jackson.
Kellerman: Yeah, that would be a great fit. For whom?
Paul: Well, that’s the thing, because you gotta figure out the package. But some way, somehow, I would be trying to get Jaren Jackson, maybe get back GG Jackson—Jackson and Jackson Associates, because he’s a young player that you can develop, got good size, can shoot the ball. But I think if you’re building around Luka [Doncic] going forward, which they are—
Kellerman: You need a guy like that.
Paul: You need that anchor, and Jaren doesn’t want to be a part of a rebuild. They just put Ja Morant on the market, right, saying they’re willing to trade him, etc. […] Now, the package just goes out, is what you have to decide. Because if you’re able to trade out [expiring contracts] and give up the last first-round pick you got, that could be one scenario, right? Or you could say, let me withhold that.
Kellerman: Austin Reaves?
Paul: This comes with a very unemotional attachment, because Austin is beloved, which he should be. He’s an underdog.
Kellerman: But he’s about to get paid.
Paul: And here’s the thing. If you really—there’s a world where you can do what’s best for your team and do what’s best for Austin, because Austin deserves to get paid right now. I love him as a Laker, but that is a situation where we get in balance, because if you put all the money into just the backcourt, and then—your flexibility is restricted going forward to fill out the rest of the team, then that’s kind of like riding—when you just have the training wheels on your bike, but the one training wheel is off and it kind of leans.
[…]
Paul: But that would be—regardless how it goes, whatever the package may be, that would be my target for the Lakers. So now, if you’re doing that, and if I have those two pieces to start from, and I know everybody wants this to be LeBron’s last year, hopefully it’s not LeBron’s last year, whatever that looks like going forward, that’s yet to be seen. [Ed. note: This person has been LeBron James’s agent for about 13 years.] But if you have those two pieces on your board, and then now I’m looking at how to fill in the rest of the blanks, that’s a good starting point. Now, it doesn’t guarantee you a championship tomorrow, but it gives you some building blocks.
LeBron’s agent ginning up trade ideas to ship off LeBron’s teammates made some people uncomfortable, including LeBron. On his way out of the arena after the Lakers’ win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, the day after the episode came out, James spoke to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin to do some damage control.
“I think you all know by now, Rich is his own man and what Rich says is not a direct reflection of me and how I feel,” James said. “And I hope people know that. I hope people know that and if they’re not sensible to know that, then I don’t know what to tell them.” James told ESPN that he did not consult with Paul before his foray into podcasting; I would argue that friends absolutely must look out for friends who are about to begin podcasting.
As much as James insists that “I’m a grown man, he’s a grown man and I think people should realize that grown men can say whatever the fuck they want to say and it shouldn’t reflect somebody else is saying it,” per ESPN, that’s an odd sentiment in this context. This isn’t two men discussing their respective favorite movies to rewatch; this is an agent discussing how to secure a championship for his own star client. It would be weird if they weren’t on the same page there.
Paul’s podcast also put James in a position to publicly address his relationship with the teammate who was hypothetically getting shipped out of town, Austin Reaves:
“AR knows how I feel about him,” James told ESPN. “All you got to do is look at us on the bench. Me and AR talk every single day. So, AR knows how I feel about him and I hope AR—or his camp—don’t look at me and think this is words from me are coming through Rich.”
ESPN reported that one of Reaves’s agents, Reggie Berry, walked up to Paul at Tuesday’s game and discussed the podcast trade proposal for “five minutes.” That would have been a fun conversation to eavesdrop on.
This is certainly bizarre behavior for an NBA agent, but does it actually break any rules? While Front Office Sports reporter Alex Schiffer quoted an anonymous NBA executive who called Paul’s trade proposal “insane and fucked up,” that same executive also noted that there wasn’t much a team could about it, besides ask Paul not to include them in his trade speculation. It’s also unclear if Paul’s comments violate any of the provisions in the NBPA regulations governing player agents.
Game Over is on The Ringer’s podcast network, whose CEO Bill Simmons was as surprised as anyone else by the candor of the trade discussion. Naturally he’s also pleased that it unfolded on a show produced by his own company. “It sounded like my podcast, but Rich is LeBron’s agent?” Simmons said on his podcast. “I couldn’t be more delighted that The Ringer is involved. If it’s caused trauma for Lakers fans and disarray behind the scenes, I can’t say that was the intention. But it’s a pure delight to me as a Celtic fan to just watch this happen. Unintended consequence, but I’ve been really enjoying the podcast. Go Rich.”