Klutch Sports Group CEO Rich Paul has been on a media tour of late, as he’s promoting his new book “Lucky Me: A Memoir of Changing the Odds.” Paul has become one of the most powerful agents in sports, negotiating more than $4 billion in deals for his clients. But had it not been for a chance meeting with LeBron James in 2001, this version of Paul would’ve never come to be. Luck plays more of a role in success than we like to believe.
The story is now legendary. Back in 2001 at the Akron-Canton Airport Paul was wearing a Warren Moon Houston Oilers throwback jersey, which caught the eye of Bron. The basketball phenom was still in high school at St. Vincent-St. Mary, but the two started a forming a friendship from that point.
Luck Plays More Of A Role In Success Than We Like To Admit
Let’s just stop there for a moment. What if Paul was wearing a Joe Montana Kansas City Chiefs throwback jersey or any other jersey that didn’t catch Bron’s eye? It’s luck.
What if instead of meeting Bron, he met Lenny Cooke or some other high school basketball phenom seemingly destined for greatness?
“As we got to talking about sports, we started evolving and even talking more and more just about life, and about our upbringing, about our moms, and our communities and stuff of that nature. And it just kinda struck. It just struck a chord,” Bron said to “60 Minutes” in the profile on Paul.
Fast-forward to 2003 and Bron is the No. 1 draft pick in the NBA, heralded as “The King” and on his way to global superstardom. He hires Paul as his right-hand man.
Of course Paul had to build and earn Bron’s trust over those two years, which he obviously did. No doubt the two became genuine friends. That’s a credit to the facility of the human spirit. But there is no opportunity to build that relationship had they not met by chance in 2001.
If Bron and Paul met a year later, the rise of Paul likely doesn’t happen. If they met in 2003 it almost assuredly doesn’t happen.
Now, what Paul is able to do once he’s hired as Bron’s right-hand man is a testament to being fully ready to take full advantage of an opportunity.
Bron was originally represented by Aaron and Eric Goodwin through 2005. Paul had the opportunity to be in the various meetings where the Goodwins negotiated deals on Bron’s behalf. He soaked up all the knowledge like a sponge.
Taking Full Advantage Of Your Opportunity
When Bron left the Goodwins in 2005 to join Leon Rose and the behemoth Creative Artists Agency, Paul again learned at the feet of the best in the business. He took everything he learned in those years and started Klutch in 2012.
Paul and Bron were widely mocked and not taken seriously when they left CAA. But most of the reaction was rooted in fear and jealousy.
“I didn’t look like the success in our industry, especially from a place of decision-making,” Paul said. “And I wanted to disrupt the industry. I wanted to be impactful, but I wanted to come from a place of purpose.”
Paul didn’t take the traditional path and is not a white male in an industry where they dominate. He was also taken aback when the few Black agents in the business didn’t offer a helping hand.
“No black agents came to me and said, ‘Let me help you, let me show you, let me help you understand.’ What they did was they went into families & talked bad about me, ‘Oh, he’s just a kid, he’s just LeBron’s friend.’ I didn’t expect that.”
In the cutthroat world of sports agents, Paul should not have expected a helping hand from anyone. White or Black. In the “60 Minutes” interview Paul made it clear that he learned early in life from his time rolling dice and being a hustler on the streets of Cleveland.
“This was my Harvard, my Michigan. [It] was my Morehouse,” Paul said. “And the same things I learned on this corner, I take it to the boardroom. Because the one thing this teaches you that I don’t think you can learn from those institutions is people, characters. And on these streets, it’s no better way to learn character because they’re coming with everything.”
So was it naiveté on the part of Paul? Did he really think the Goodwins who used to be Bron’s agents, or any of the other Black agents would help him to potentially one day steal their clients?
The game is a hustle and there are people you respect, but there are really no true friends in that world. Still, Paul persevered.
He managed to build a a roster of impressive clients through his hustle and the lessons he learned at CAA and from the Goodwin’s.
Klutch Sports Group is now ranked in the top 10 of the world’s most powerful agencies according to Forbes. The agency has branched out into repping NFL athletes, and WNBA athletes as well.
Paul has cemented his place as one of the preeminent sports agents in the world and that is to be respected and commended. He used his intelligence, hard work and dedication to get there. But none of that would’ve mattered if he had never met Bron on that fateful day in 2001 at the Akron-Canton Airport.
