The coronavirus pandemic has paralyzed the sports world…well everybody except super agent Rich Paul who has cornered the NBA market, quietly accumulated a roster of potent NFL talent and recently focused his energies on building his Major League Baseball roster.
These major moves make Paul’s burgeoning sports agency an official triple threat. It also solidifies the 38-year-old G as the Micheal Jackson of this sports agent sh*t.
With his venture into MLB, where less than 8 percent of the players are African-American, two out of the league’s 30 teams have African-American managers and none of the agents or owners are Black, Paul continues to disprove the notion that he’s a one trick pony.
This month, Klutch announced the completion of its Tidal Sports acquisition and finalized a deal with baseball agent Brodie Scofield to join the Klutch family as its lead baseball agent.
While everyone was still patting Paul on the back for his hoops exploits, Klutch Sports was doing what it does best and changing the culture. In a few short months, Paul has been able to expand into football and now baseball.
Klutch Sports has added 13 MLB players to the mix, including perennial MVP candidate Alex Bregman (Houston Astros), and pitching sensation Marcus Stroman (Mets).
It was also recently announced that United Talent Agency, one of the top leading representation firms in Hollywood, has teamed up with Paul to create a sports division for the entertainment company.
The kid from Ohio who used to sell throwback jerseys now runs the most powerful sports agency in the world.
Klutch has 23 NFL players on its roster, including All-Pro running backs Alvin Kamara and Melvin Gordon, Cleveland’s Jarvis Landry, and Ohio State defensive stud Chase Young, who’s expected to go no lower than No. 2 in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Klutch’s NBA roster is already loaded with 22 players led by power names like LeBron James, Anthony Davis, John Wall, Ben Simmons, Eric Bledsoe and three-time NBA Champion Draymond Green.
Most people still equate Paul’s success with the NBA, because his gold star client LeBron is one of his best friends and the biggest name in the sport. Paul’s power move to first lure Anthony Davis away from his old agent and then strong arming the trade to LA, was proof that he was changing the culture, helping to empower players and elevating to the top spot in a game that once excluded Black men from participating.
Haters continue to downplay Paul’s genius, saying that he has an advantage with signing the young Black players in the NBA because he’s African-American. There might be some validity to that and if so, then we also have to credit Paul with changing perceptions — even among brainwashed Black folks — that white agents were superior, more business savvy, more numbers crafty.
AD TO LA WAS A WARNING SHOT
The AD deal was the backbreaker. Paul became a threat to the white hierarchy of sports agents who have long dominated the game by keeping the “game of business” separated from the players. Paul not only brings tribal energy to the conversation, but he genuinely cares for his athletes and provides them with the jewels and nuggets for personal and professional growth.
So threatened by Paul’s business savvy and growing control, the NCAA tried to switch up the game plan and reverse some of the diversity inroads Paul has made in the business by implementing the so-called “Rich Paul Rule,” which required agents looking to represent student-athletes to have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree, among other criteria.
It was a rule that in theory would have stopped another young brother like Rich Paul, who didn’t have a degree, from also defying the odds and becoming the king of basketball business.
After much pressure from social media, superstar players of color and social and civil rights groups, the NCAA rescinded the rule, but the point was made very clear; The powers that be don’t want Paul at the table messing up a good thing.
Unfortunately for the old regime, it’s too late.
KLUTCH SPORTS GOT IT ALL COVERED
From the court, to the gridiron, to the diamond, Klutch Sports has it covered. And after seeing the kind of genius and prophetic deals Rich Paul negotiated for his elite NBA clients, there’s not an athlete in any sport that wouldn’t want this man to handle their finances and help elevate their brand.
The icing on the cake, as far as cementing Paul’s superiority over other agents came with the coronavirus pandemic that suspended the NBA season and put the players’ finances in doubt.
It was reported that if the season is finally canceled, as rumors have suggested in recent days, the NBA could withhold 1.08 percent of each player’s 2019/20 salary for every game missed. With 17 games still left to play, plus the playoffs, some guys could take a big hit.
However, a small group of about 12 players received a big percentage of their money upfront, which means they are safe from financial disruption.
Nine of those players are Klutch Sports clients.
Nine who secured these all-you-can-get deals, which pay out 90-plus percent of their 2019-20 salaries by April 1, are represented by Klutch Sports on contracts structured and negotiated by agent Rich Paul and attorney Mark Termini
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 31, 2020
The lucky nine are James, John Wall, Kentavious-Caldwell Pope, Dejounte Murray, Miles Bridges, Darius Bazley, Darius Garland, Terrance Ferguson and Trey Lyles. Next season it will be 10 when Draymond Green’s contract extension kicks in.
The rest of the league got paychecks last Wednesday but don’t know when they will be paid again. With Paul’s entrance into MLB, maybe the underpublished Black superstars will join Klutch and enjoy the branding perks of being associated with rising game changers of the sports and entertainment world.
What else is there to say? Paul continues to outmaneuver the competition, stay in tune with the younger generation and expand his corporate dynasty.
