Leon Rose, the former agent of Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul, was officially announced as the New York Knicks president on Monday.
Paul spoke about his reaction to the news and a conversation he had with Rose.
“I was excited. I was surprised like everybody else,” Paul said in a video posted to Twitter by The Oklahoman’s Maddie Lee.
“Le has been with me for a long time through a lot of different things and I couldn’t be happier for him and his family.”
Rose helped facilitate several trades and contracts involving Paul, who has been traded three times: from the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2011, the Clippers to the Houston Rockets in 2017 and the Rockets to the Thunder in 2019.
Paul has signed multiple large contracts over the last decade, including a five-year, $107 million extension with the Clippers in 2013 and a four-year, $160 million deal in 2018.
The Thunder guard is set to make more than $41 million next year and $44 million the following season.
“The first thing I said to him was how did his wife and his kids react, cause Le is all about his family, so I’m happy for him,” Paul said.
Rose is now at the helm of the Knicks, whose 18-42 record entering Monday was among the worst in the league. This will be the seventh season in a row they miss out on the playoffs, and have only appeared three times since 2004.
He leaves behind a bevy of clients including high-profile players such as Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker and Mike Conley.
