Rich Paul, agent and close friend of former Miami Heat champion LeBron James has quickly taken Klutch Sports Group to unseen heights. Next stop, the NFL.
When LeBron James was a member of the Miami Heat, there were always rumblings that there were forces at work behind the scenes aimed at doing his biddings. It is believed that one of the major issues that LeBron had during his tenure was the fact that Pat Riley didn’t want to cede more control to LeBron and these unseen forces. We now know this force was led by or exclusively was Rich Paul, LeBron’s agent, very good friend, and head of Klutch Sports Group.
Klutch Sports Group is an agency that has grown a lot in a relatively short amount of time. Over the course of its short existence, it has accrued quite the roster of clients.
Coincidentally, or maybe not so much, their list of clients doesn’t include any current Miami Heat players. Their list of clients does however include: Darius Bazley, Eric Bledsoe, Miles Bridges, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jordan Clarkson, Anthony Davis, Terrance Ferguson, Darius Garland, Draymond Green, Montrezl Harrell, Talen Horton-Tucker, LeBron James, Cory Joseph, Trey Lyles, Ben McLemore, Markieff Morris, Dejounte Murray, Ben Simmons, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, and John Wall, along with a few other players.
It was also this same Rich Paul for who’s the NCAA’s latest rule snafu was named after. Dubbed the Rich Paul Rule, it was a new NCAA rule stipulation that stated that any agent seeking to represent a student-athlete mulling on entering the NBA Draft had to have a bachelor’s degree, which Paul does not have. Well, the establishment will certainly get a kick out of this.
It was reported on Tuesday that Rich Paul and the Klutch Group would be getting into the NFL business. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that they were looking to Sports Agent Damarius Bilbo to head their NFL wing. Bilbo represents Jarvis Landry of Cleveland Browns and Melvin Gordon of the Los Angeles Chargers, with the latter currently holding out.
NBA is now turning to the NFL: Klutch Sports Group, led by the well-known Rich Paul, is in talks with agent Damarius Bilbo to lead his football division, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 10, 2019
As the great poet and philosopher Jay-Z once put it, he’s “not a businessman, he’s a business… Man!”. Guess LeBron James was right.
https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1158883926640697345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1158883926640697345&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fftw.usatoday.com%2F2019%2F08%2Flebron-james-rich-paul-ncaa-rule-reaction-twitter-agent-nba-bachelors-degree
No matter which way you slice it, Rich Paul is making waves. He has already made a deep imprint on the NBA, now he’s looking to do the same in Pro Football. Lookout Rog, coming your way.