Rich Paul pushes back on the narrative of LeBron James as a shadow GM

USA Today

6 days ago

Rich Paul pushes back on the narrative of LeBron James as a shadow GM
Those who tend to dislike or even hate LeBron James claim that he has an outsized amount of influence on the personnel decisions of his teams. He does have a reputation for supposedly strong-arming his teams, albeit in a passive-aggressive way, to make certain personnel moves, and it has even led to some nicknaming him "LeGM."
One example that is often cited is the Los Angeles Lakers' 2021 trade for Russell Westbrook. It cost them viable role players in Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell, and it led to a disastrous 2021-22 season during which they failed to reach the play-in tournament.
According to at least one report, James and Anthony Davis met with Westbrook prior to the trade and talked about how the three could play effectively together. It is thought that James then sold Lakers executive Rob Pelinka, who had at least one other move lined up, on trading for Westbrook, causing Pelinka to call off any other major moves.
During an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," Rich Paul, James' longtime agent and the CEO of Klutch Sports, pushed back on the narrative that James pushes teams to acquire the players he wants.
"And that's false," Paul claimed. "I can say that because I'm there and when you think about that and that narrative people don't think about the impact that that has off the court. It hurts friendships, guys that play on teams because they feel like, 'Hey, I may have been traded and it's because you wanted me out of here.' I know that it's not to be true. Clearly he don't run the team because there's things that transpired that he didn't even know about, so how is he running the team? The Westbrook trade. He didn't make that trade, contrary to what people try to put out there. He did not make that trade, and I know that for a fact. So I think those things are…there's one thing to have power and influence, and there are guys who earned the right for some decisions to be ran past you or for some teams to say, 'Hey, what do you think about this?'
"We can't confuse someone asking a player for an opinion and that being the decision that's being made. Those are two separate things, and I deal with all of them, players and offices. Those are two separate things. I don't think players are in the position to make a specific decision all the time due to the fact that they're not doing the diligence that the front offices are doing to even make that decision. Because it's one thing to date somebody, it's another thing to live with them."
It is thought that the trade that sent Anthony Davis and Max Christie to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic sent James and Paul a message that they don't have influence over the Lakers. Now, after a few years of purgatory following the Westbrook deal, the Purple and Gold are on the verge of becoming true championship contenders, assuming James, who has a player option for next season, sticks around.