It has become common knowledge that LeBron James shares a uniquely tight bond with his close friend Rich Paul, who is a sports agent for Klutch Sports Group.
Throughout much of his career has had some close dealings with the agency that has at least sparked some questions about his involvement. According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, the NBA has previously conducted an investigation to see if James had any ownership of the company. (h/t NBC Sports)
LeBron doesn’t have any ownership in Klutch Sports.
The NBA investigated it and said LeBron doesn’t have ownership.
Several notable players in the league aside from James such as Eric Bledsoe, John Wall, Ben Simmons, Tristan Thompson, and J.R. Smith are clients under Klutch Sports with Paul as their agent. It would be only reasonable for the league to look into the situation given the closeness between James and Paul, who are childhood friends. The reason the league looked into the matter is because the current CBA does not allow players to be stockholders in any agency.
However, Paul has operated as his own entity despite his strong connection to the four-time league MVP. That doesn’t mean that James hasn’t had some influence on the handling of Thompson and Smith’s free agency situations over the last couple of years, because he surely has, but the league determined that James ultimately doesn’t have any owning interest in Klutch Sports. Instead, James has empowered his close friends and helped them create names for themselves.
