sports agent rich paul He says he was “born to be a dice roller.”
Paul is the founder and CEO of Klutch Sports Group. Klutch Sports Group is an influential agency with nearly 200 athletes on its roster, including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Draymond Green. In his teens, Paul was a hustler who often won big at dice games in Cleveland, he said. Currently, he has negotiated over $4 billion in deals for his clients.
Roll the dice — literally
Paul’s unlikely journey is the subject of Lucky Me: A Memoir That Changed the Odds, published by Rock Lit 101, a Penguin Random House publication. The memoir, to be published Tuesday, details Paul’s life. His journey began on Cleveland’s east side in the early 1980s, just as crack cocaine was beginning to hit the streets. Around the age of four, Paul learned that his mother, Minerva, was addicted to crack. Paul’s father, a “very rich man”, recognized his son’s intelligence and remained close to him, even though they lived far apart.
“Big Rich” taught Paul to always think two steps ahead. He scraped together money to send his son to a Catholic high school, but he couldn’t avoid living on the streets, and the lessons he learned there were crucial to his education, Paul said. .
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“This was my Harvard University, my University of Michigan. [It] “That was my Morehouse,” Paul said. “And I’m taking the same things I learned on this street corner into the boardroom. Because the only thing this institution teaches you that I don’t think you can learn from these institutions is, Because it’s the people, the characters. And in a city like this, they come with everything, so there’s no better way to learn about character.”
Paul said he was a regular at the park’s outdoor casino when he was a teenager. He was earning up to $5,000 per day.
“This is where you learn resilience,” he said. “We won [the] Most of the time, I had to learn how to lose. ”
At the age of 19, Paul’s father died of cancer, and Paul devoted all his energy to selling marijuana and crack cocaine on the streets.
“My father was not there, and I was able to take that step because I never would have done that if he had been around. I had a lot of respect for my father,” Paul said. Told. “And it’s not something I’m going to sit here and glorify.”
Paul considers himself a full-time hustler, but said his choices were born out of necessity.
“Jeff Bezos is a hustler. You think he’s not? Phil Knight was the ultimate hustler,” Paul said. “The difference is they can execute their plans and business ideas and get someone to believe in them. It didn’t matter what idea I had to get there. There is no way.”
Meeting LeBron James
Paul found his way by luck. In 2001, Paul was at the Akron-Canton Airport wearing a throwback Warren Moon jersey, which caught the attention of another traveler, then-high school sensation LeBron James.
The jersey sparked conversation, and James and Paul quickly formed a deep bond.
“Once we started talking about sports, we started evolving and started talking more about life, about our upbringing, about our mothers, our community, things of that nature. And it was kind of shocking. It was a chord,” James said.
When James entered the NBA, he hired Paul as his right-hand man. Paul continued to work as James’ agent, watching, listening, and learning. He went independent four years later and launched Klutch Sports Group in 2012. James accompanied him.
Growing clutch sports group
Paul said when he started his company, he was undervalued and unwanted by others in the industry.
“I didn’t seem to be successful in our industry, especially from a decision-making standpoint,” Paul said. “And I wanted to disrupt the industry. I wanted to have an impact, but I wanted to come from a place of purpose.”
Paul’s first round of negotiations on behalf of Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe gave him a chance to prove the naysayers wrong. Paul said the Suns initially offered his client $28 million, but after holding out for a year, Crutch gave Bledsoe a $70 million contract.
Since then, Paul said he strives to give players leverage and aims to create deals that are not only high value but also give players flexibility. In 2018, New Orleans center Anthony Davis was tired of losing. He fired his agent and hired Paul, who ignored NBA rules and publicly requested a trade, angering fans and Davis being fined $50,000. .
Davis received a championship ring and a contract worth a total of $270 million to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. Paul was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and was described as the most polarizing figure in the NBA.
“When it was someone who didn’t look like me, that was genius. That’s why we hired people in power,” Paul said. “But if I’m there, am I going to destroy the league? I mean, those things are ridiculous.”
Some of Paul’s biggest swings were for his biggest clients. Paul negotiated LeBron James’ jump from Miami to Cleveland to Los Angeles, earning James $400 million and winning two of his four championships.
Today, Klutch has 70 employees and offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta. Paul partnered with leading Hollywood agency UTA to expand his reach. Paul has his own New Balance signature shoe, a first for the agent. And his partner is even more famous than him: Paul has been dating Adele for two and a half years.
Paul said he often has to pinch himself.
“I’ve had it worse than a lot of people, but I’ve evolved and matured and transitioned,” he said. “You feel like you’ve earned it, don’t you? Of course, it’s not something that’s given to you. It’s earned, so that’s a good thing. I like that.”