NBA super agent and founder of Klutch Sports Group Rich Paul knows there are certain people who believe he’s only achieved what he has today because of his more than 20-year friendship with LeBron James. But the 43-year-old says he has been building up to this success all his life.
“Many people think, ‘He was LeBron’s friend, LeBron gave him a job,'” Paul said during an appearance at CNBC x Boardroom’s Game Plan Summit. “He did give me an opportunity I’m extremely appreciative of. But that wasn’t representing him. I didn’t get my opportunity to represent him until his 9th year in the league.”
Instead, Paul told the audience, it took years of hard work with “a lot of sacrifices made” to get to where he is today. Paul credited his success to the example his dad set running a convenience store, working “for the lowest margins you could ever imagine.”
“We sold beer, wine, cigarettes and candy. That’s where I learned math, on the lottery machine,” he said.
Rich Paul and LeBron James have been friends since 2002.
Zach Beeker | National Basketball Association | Getty Images
“The most important thing I learned was customer service, because this is a service industry that we work in. It allowed me to gain perspective through the lens of all types of walks of life, which created this relatability that’s holistic. I can relate to any environment in front of me. Those things help me in the board rooms and the negotiation rooms.”
As he came up through the ranks at CAA, Paul said he “saw athletes being represented by people that pretended to care” but who didn’t understand the communities where the players came from or how to relate to them.
His background playing high school basketball on a good team — and never being the best player, he noted — helped him “have a different approach” with his star clients. “It allowed me to have this humility amongst the guys who were the better players,” he said. “It allowed me to talk to my teammates from a place of truth.”
So, he added, did a willingness to get things wrong sometimes while building his business.
“Mistakes aren’t failures, they’re experiences,” he said. “A repeated mistake is a failure. The initial mistake? You’re experiencing something and you’re trying to gain knowledge or gain a better understanding.”
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