Just after all-Star weekend, Klutch Sports, an agency where Rich Paul is one of the founders, started team building. It was as if the emperor had just celebrated his birthday, and his favored courtiers were feasting on guests in the mansion to show their power.
The players on the scene were star-studded, with James, Lavin Trae Young, and first-time All-Star Murray and Garland all dressed up. People who don't know think it's a fashion festival.
In just a few years, Rich Paul has become the NBA's top three player agent. Because his English name is Rich Paul, Rich translates to Chinese means rich, so domestic netizens habitually call him Rich Paul. As of this year, Klutch Sports has a total of 30 NBA players with a total salary of nearly $400 million.
The season the Lakers won the championship, there were six players from Klutch Sports, including James, Davis, Harrell, Horton Tucker, Pope and JR Smith. This can explain why Davis signed a contract with minimal benefits last offseason and chose to stay with the Lakers for a long time.
Here's a list of Klutch Sport players:
Lakers: James, Thick Eyebrows, Tucker Jr
Spurs: Desontay Murray, Ronnie Walker, Trey Lyles
PHILADELPHIA: Maxi, Ferguson
Trail Blazers: Nurkic, McLemore, Bledsoe
Timberwolves: Okogie, Edwards
Bulls: Lonzo Bauer, Tetan, Lavin
Raptors: Anunoby, Trent JR
Nuggets: Aaron Gordon
Magic: Terence Rose
Eagles: Trae Young
Warriors: Drummond Green
Jazz: Clarkson
Nets: Ben Simmons
Rocket: Wall
Wasp: Harrell
Wizard: Pop
Thunder: Darius Bezley
Wasp: Bridges
Piston: Joseph
Knight: Darius Garland
In the entire Klutch Sports camp, there are 8 All-Stars, 4 players get the top salary, and the rest of the players are the main players or main rotations of each team, and the strength is incomparable.
In fact, Klutch Sports is still inextricably linked to James, its parent company is called LRMR, taken from the English initials of James and his four friends, the other three are: Randy Meems, Marvyk Carter and Rich Paul, these three people are also the most staunch supporters of James' camp.
LRMR was established in the third year of James's entry into the league, registered by James, with four small partners and a clear division of labor. Old Zhan is responsible for playing a dominant performance and increasing his influence. Carter was in charge of business, Miems was in charge of James' personal affairs, and Rich Paul was transformed into a player agent.
With James' golden sign, LRMR started very smoothly. Soon after, he established business partnerships with a number of companies, and was also supported by the Investment Bank of New York. In 2007, he bought a stake in the bicycle manufacturer, in 2008 he acquired a partial stake in the headphone company Beats, and in 2009 he acquired a stake in Liverpool in the Premier League. In 2008, at the behest of James, Rich Paul joined CAA (one of the most famous athlete agency companies in the United States) to study with top agent Leon Rose. In 2012, the full-fledged Rich Paul set himself up to form Klutch Sports, headquartered in Cleveland, just across the street from the Cavaliers' home stadium. James subsequently left CAA to become the first player under Klutch Sports.
It's hard to tell who James and Richie Paul are the real bosses. But what can be determined is that they are already anxious about Meng, Meng is not out of focus, all Klutch Sports important social occasions, James will personally participate, stand for it, but also cooperate with Rich Paul to actively communicate with management, for its players to fight for a larger contract, hindered by James's huge influence on the team, management will always choose to compromise, in order to make old Zhan happy.
At their insistence, their players have been awarded big contracts. In 2014, the Suns renewed Bledsoe's contract for 5 years and 70 million; in 2015, after a long tug-of-war, TT Thompson renewed the Cavaliers for 5 years and 82 million; in 2016, after a game, JR finally renewed the Cavaliers for 4 years and 57 million. In these three very well-known negotiations, there is a common feature, that is, James, as a "same door", has spoken out in support of the players. Moreover, after getting the big contract, there was no sustained good performance, basically in the second year of the contract, it became a burden to the team.
Great success is always accompanied by controversy, some people say that Paul Fu is a good agent for the sake of the interests of the players, and some people say that he is insatiable and will only put pressure on the team in the name of James.
Although the NBA is the most regulated basketball league in the world, there will be "loopholes" and "edges" in the perfect system. Players also have a sharp mind, never talk about recruitment in public, communication with management, but also by the agency to come forward in private, everything is reasonable and legal, the league can not fault anything.
In today's NBA, there is no absolute enemy. In the 17-18 season Finals, Green was suspended by the league for hitting James's lower body, the cumulative number of technical fouls was full, which directly changed the trend of the series, and the Cavaliers reversed the championship in the case of 1-3 behind, creating history. Logically, Green and James are the nemesis of "not sharing the same sky", but who would have thought that they belong to the same brokerage company and have a very good relationship in private, often training together and participating in social occasions.
That's why James always makes the most correct decisions and always recruits players who are helpful to the team. All of this, due to its strong strength, the team needs James to make the most favorable move, and out of the results, commercial interests will follow. I have to say that Old Zhan has seen through the NBA's operating rules and is no longer a lamb to be slaughtered.
In addition to this, Rich Paul has done something very meaningful, which is to force the NCAA to revise the certification requirements for college player agents, as long as they can maintain a good reputation in the NBA player union, without having to provide a college degree. This move is undoubtedly for the black people who are not highly educated and want to get involved in the agent business, opening up a convenient channel, so that they have more opportunities to change their destiny, and they can fight for the greatest rights and interests of college players, so as not to be squeezed too much value (the well-known basketball universities in the United States are mostly board systems, and white people control the operation).
Rich Paul has become a law changer and popular with black players, and more and more people are now choosing to join Klutch Sports because they always put the interests of their players first, especially black players. In a way, James and Rich Paul have changed the status quo of players being squeezed, a vice left over from hundreds of years of American history. From the perspective of both labor and management, it is certainly a good thing that the status between players and the team is becoming more and more equal. But to a certain extent, the balance between teams has been broken, and the strength between teams has become more and more disparate, and every year it is the favorite team to win the championship, which greatly reduces the game viewing, and the fans are also prone to aesthetic fatigue.
Some people say that "James controlled the league", a bit exaggerated, if the league can really be controlled by him, it is not a championship every year, it has long surpassed Jordan to become the first person in history, even if it is 37 years old, it is still necessary to fight in the front line. He just relies on his influence to do the most beneficial thing for himself, and he is not the only one, which epoch-making superstar does not play with the capital, James just stands at the cusp of the times and goes with the flow. In the end, the NBA is still a business alliance, there must be rules in business, light or dark, have the ability to control, you can decide your own fate, can not control, that can only be at its mercy.
Competition, on the other hand, is what the alliance is most happy to see, because it can get huge attention and traffic, which can be converted into benefits. The seemingly calm lake surface is actually surging undercurrents, and the teams with the strength to compete for the championship are hoarding strength, or want to compete, or want to replace it. Xiao Hua acquiesced to all this, and the superstar group became the most popular trend, and the finals were best played between two super teams, just like the Hu Kai battle that year.
Predictably, Klutch Sports is already a very mature brokerage company. Even if James retires a few years later, it will not affect his operations in the slightest. In addition to his commercial success, Paul Fu also managed to capture the heart of the queen of heaven, Adele, and was already a successful person among the American high society. And his experience is enough to write an inspirational history of struggle.
Although he and James are both hugely controversial, it is undeniable that their lives are successful, and you can disagree with their business and hype, but you must admit that people do have two brushes. Existence is reasonable, and there is no way to disobey.