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There has been major drama between Austin Reaves, LeBron James, and Rich Paul over his comments on Lakers trade rumors and potential moves.
Recent reports claim that the Los Angeles Lakers witnessed a rift between LeBron James and controlling owner Jeanie Buss early into his tenure with the franchise after the first NBA Championship win wore off. Buss reportedly didn’t like the media calling James a “savior” to such a historic franchise that her family made relevant for decades and viewed him as having a large ego. Some rumors even state that Jeanie considered trading LeBron at one point during his Los Angeles tenure.
James’ close friend and agent Rich Paul spoke about this report on his podcast with Max Kellerman:
“You don’t know what’s true, what’s not true, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. All I know is this: there should be an appreciation for a guy like LeBron. And I think that, oftentimes, people decide what not to do for reasons that don’t really have substance to them.”
Paul spoke bluntly about saying there’s usually some fire aka truth to the story if the smoke aka rumors are flying around this much. However, everyone could have guessed that Paul would have his lifelong friend’s back here. Paul is right for saying there should be a strong appreciation for LeBron. The Lakers sole NBA Championship win since 2010 came with James as the face of the franchise.
Rich Paul Does Defend Lakers Organization
The podcast featured Paul speaking more in-depth about the subject since it’s become a big story that the Lakers and LeBron may have some friction there. Paul went out of his way to share his account of seeing the franchise treat James and himself well many times.
“What I know is, from the time we’ve gotten to LA, we’ve been treated great,” Paul stated. “There was a championship won, we played Rummy Cube in the bubble, and had lunch every day. When people see things are going well, they try their best to poke holes and try to manipulate relationships. And in any relationship, there’s going to be some type of annoyance at some point.”
Paul looks at the story from multiple angles that provides rationale for it going either way. If the story is true, Paul understands that there are annoyances in any relationship that lasts this long. However, he also wanted to share how well the Lakers treated them during the positive times and that the media might be trying to create an issue.
Rich Paul Quite About LeBron’s Future
Paul speaking publicly this much has been a bit surprising, given how blunt the agent is speaking about his clients and other players around the league. The podcast sees Paul sharing his honest thoughts about most important stories.
However, Paul has not been as blunt about the rumors regarding LeBron and the Lakers potentially parting ways after this season. Controversial comments about trading Austin Reaves did create a narrative that Paul pushed that to help James’ chances of a return on a big contract.
Paul remains silent about whether he feels LeBron will want to remain in Los Angeles and if the Lakers are willing to pay him a new deal. The commentary doesn’t see Paul revealing James’ hand of his desired move come the offseason.