We’re just over two days from the start of the 2019 NBA Finals but the Real Lakers of Los Angeles remain the NBA’s drama that keeps on giving, with more details coming to light about their failure of a season that led to Magic Johnson’s sudden departure at the season’s end.
And one of the biggest concerns from Lakers staffers, which appeared in a lengthy exposé by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes, was the perceived amount of preferential treatment given to agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. According to the account, this treatment started when the Lakers signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who like LeBron James is signed to Klutch. But it came to a head when Paul caught a ride on the Lakers team charter, according to Holmes.
A Lakers spokesperson confirmed that Paul has ridden on the team charter, though he said it happened only once — on a one-way cross-country flight — after Paul had travel complications. The Lakers wouldn’t specify when this flight occurred but said Walton was given the opportunity to deny Paul access to the charter, but he declined to do so.
And so the perception existed among the Lakers’ coaching staff that Paul sought to oust Walton. And some players also believed, according to coaching staff members and those players’ agents, that Klutch Sports was working to trade them away for a superstar. Given those perceptions, one former Lakers player described Paul’s presence on the team charter as a “culture killer.”
While LeBron James may be the team’s last remaining hope of being able to land a star caliber teammate, it’s clear that the incredible power and influence Rich Paul carries was part of the toxic cocktail of dysfunction that torpedoed the Lakers past season.
Paul and Klutch are from the ones to blame for creating a Lakers culture that has become the butt of jokes league-wide. But with the Lakers being rudderless, Paul’s presence and the intensity of the Anthony Davis saga made him an easy target for everyone else’s ire in the sinking Lakers organization.
Hitching a ride on the team plane just added insult to injury. But make no mistake, everything hurts for the Lakers right now.
