October 11th 2023.
Rich Paul recently made an appearance on Sirius XM's The Clay Cane Show to discuss the way he is perceived compared to white power brokers in sports and business. Paul is well-known in the industry for representing a variety of American sports stars, having negotiated a staggering $4 billion for his clients at Klutch Sports Group.
When asked about white American athletes in his portfolio, Paul admitted that he had no white American basketball players as part of his agency. Paul attributed this to the fact that white American players seem to view him differently than international players.
"That's accurate, yeah. Now that's not necessarily, you know, when we think about that, we're not, it's not international players because international players actually have a different outlook on it. And I represent an international player, Jusuf Nurkic. He's from Bosnia, so he has a different outlook on it," Paul explains. "But if you grew up in, you know, Indiana or Georgia or, you know, or Oklahoma, or even Ohio for that matter. Yeah, no."
Paul also believes that the difference is because white American basketball players don't seem to trust Black sports agents. He clarified that he does have white American athletes in his portfolio, but they are not basketball players.
Paul is on a media blitz to promote his new memoir, Lucky Me, which chronicles his journey from street hustler and drug dealer to the right hand man of LeBron James. During an appearance on Good Morning America, Paul discussed the stigma that sometimes surrounds Black people and therapy.
"So as I got into writing the book I started to feel better, I started to kind of share some of those moments and release that trauma that was built inside. You know, growing up how we grew up, we didn't understand or even know what it was like to have a therapist and things like that and it was really nobody to be vulnerable with," he says.
During his 60 Minutes profile, Paul addressed the negative connotation when he is referred to as a hustler, versus someone like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos or Nike chairman emeritus Phil Knight.
"But Jeff Bezos is a hustler, think he's not? Phil Knight was the ultimate hustler. The difference is, they could go with their plan and their business idea, and get someone to believe in them. It didn't matter what idea I had, there's no pathway to get there," Paul pointed out.
Rich Paul has made a name for himself in the sports world as a successful agent and trailblazer. His recent media appearances have highlighted the various challenges he has faced along the way, from the way white American basketball players view him to the stigma that sometimes surrounds Black people and therapy. He is a powerful example of determination and success in the face of adversity.
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