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dave mcmenamin
Los Angeles– Lebron James cleared the air after lakers‘ win 141-116 Above atlanta hawks On Tuesday, distanced himself from the opinion of his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, who said L.A. should trade the fan favorite austin reeves.
“I think you all know by now, Rich is his own man and what Rich says is not a direct reflection of me and how I feel,” James told ESPN while leaving Crypto.com Arena. “And I hope people know that. I hope people know that and if they’re not smart enough to know that, I don’t know what to tell them.”
Paul said on a recent episode of his podcast “Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul” that the Lakers should swap Reaves. memphis grizzlies For the two-time All-Star big man jaren jackson jr
“If you’re building around Luke [Doncic] Moving forward, who they are, you need that anchor,” Paul said. “And Jaren doesn’t want to be part of a rebuild.”
Paul presented a scenario in which the Lakers would offer expiring contracts and their 2031 or 2032 first-round picks to target Jackson and the 6-foot-9 Memphis forward. GG Jackson As a developmental project. And then he said L.A. would trade Reaves as the centerpiece of the proposal before they would have to make a decision on offering him a five-year, $241 million max contract extension this summer.
Paul said, “It comes with a lot of emotional attachment because Austin is beloved, which he should be, he’s an underdog.” “There’s a world where you can do what’s best for your team, and do what’s best for Austin. Because Austin deserves to get paid. Now, I love him as a Laker, but if that was a situation where we’re finding a balance — because if you put all the money into just the backcourt and then your flexibility to fill out the rest of the team is restricted, then [building a full roster is challenging]”
Paul said Jaren Jackson Jr. would provide a 26-year-old center to pair with the 26-year-old Doncic and also set up Reaves for success with his team.
“Memphis will definitely make Austin pay,” Paul said. “He’ll definitely … probably become their point guard and leading scorer. … But definitely their highest-paid player.”
James told ESPN that he did not consult his longtime friend Paul about the decision to enter the media space and host a podcast before it launched last month.
“AR knows how I feel about him. You just have to look at us on the bench. Me and AR talk every day. So, AR knows how I feel about him and I hope AR – or his camp – don’t look at me and think these words are coming from me through Rich.”
Lebron James
“Rich, that’s what he’s doing,” James told ESPN. “That’s his whole thing. That’s what he’s doing. That’s what he’s talking about, but I don’t have any conversations about what his topics are going to be or what they’re going to talk about. He’s his own man and that’s his platform.”
One of Reeves’ agents, Reggie Berry of the AMR Agency, approached Paul on the sideline near halfcourt during halftime of the Lakers-Hawks game on Tuesday. Sources told ESPN that the two spoke for more than five minutes and the topic of conversation was Paul’s public trade scenario in relation to Reeves.
James said there was no bad blood between him and Reeves, his longest-tenured teammate on the Lakers, after the podcast episode.
“AR knows how I feel about him,” James told ESPN. “You just have to look at us on the bench. Me and AR talk every day. So, AR knows how I feel about him and I hope AR – or his camp – doesn’t look at me and think these are my words coming through to Rich.
“Rich has his own perspective about what he sees, I have my own perspective. I’m a grown man, he’s a grown man and I think people should realize that grown men can say whatever they want to say and it shouldn’t reflect that someone else is saying it.”
This isn’t the first controversial statement Paul has shared about the Lakers this season. In December, around the same time as L.A. lost to San Antonio Spurs In the NBA Cup quarterfinals, Paul said on the podcast that the Lakers “were not championship contenders.”
James responded, saying, “I can’t think about what we could do in the playoffs in December. … Talking about what kind of loss we could do in the postseason in December, that’s not right for the basketball gods.”
Although some interpreted Paul’s use of the podcast as an urgent call to put public pressure on the Lakers’ front office to step down and ultimately serve their marquee client in James, he has shared other opinions on the podcast that from his perspective remove his agent’s association with a player. For example, he said that milwaukee bucks should insist on coming back jalen johnson In any trade discussions with Atlanta giannis antetokounmpo – but he acknowledged that his client Johnson would not want that.
Paul also shared that he would rather give Michael Jordan the last shot in the game than James.
Before James even talked about Paul’s podcast, he played his best game of the season. He scored 31 points on 12-for-20 shooting with 10 assists and 9 rebounds, and played in the second night of a back-to-back for the first time this season after sitting out the first month of the Lakers’ campaign due to sciatica affecting his lower back and lower right leg.
Lakers coach JJ Redick tried his best to defend the 41-year-old James in his comments after the game.
“I don’t take what LeBron says lightly,” Redick said. “It’s really unfortunate how much this guy invests in this and how much he cares and the way some people talk about him. It’s crazy. Come around him every day and see how much this guy cares. It’s off the charts.”
Shortly after, James defended Paul’s podcast venture.
“That’s their prerogative,” James told ESPN.
