Just how powerful is Klutch? Is it really this powerful, dark entity?

[Taj FTW]

See below for some quotes about how powerful Klutch is.

This is lebron and klutch sports trying to have his name heard and talked about during the NBA Finals

klutch sports runs fs1, and espn

Nick Wright only has a job thanks to Klutch

Klutch Sports and Player Empowerment is Lebron's gift and lasting legacy to the NBA. Long after he retires, Klutch will be his enduring monument to: player greed, control, narcissism, conflict-of-interest, tampering, anti-competition and dis-loyalty.

Klutch Sports and Player Empowerment are basically just one big FU to the fans. Thanks, Lebron.

The list goes on and on. Everybody has seen the posts. Is Klutch really this evil entity that controls the media, forces front offices hands, influences the commissioner, tampers constantly, etc? Klutch seems to be the scapegoat for everything. Do you think Klutch is really horrible for the league, or they are just doing their job?

[RoxSteady]

[Onlytimewilltel]

See below for some quotes about how powerful Klutch is.

This is lebron and klutch sports trying to have his name heard and talked about during the NBA Finals

klutch sports runs fs1, and espn

Nick Wright only has a job thanks to Klutch

Klutch Sports and Player Empowerment is Lebron's gift and lasting legacy to the NBA. Long after he retires, Klutch will be his enduring monument to: player greed, control, narcissism, conflict-of-interest, tampering, anti-competition and dis-loyalty.

Klutch Sports and Player Empowerment are basically just one big FU to the fans. Thanks, Lebron.

The list goes on and on. Everybody has seen the posts. Is Klutch really this evil entity that controls the media, forces front offices hands, influences the commissioner, tampers constantly, etc? Klutch seems to be the scapegoat for everything. Do you think Klutch is really horrible for the league, or they are just doing their job?

I mean look at who those posters you’re quoting are, I’ve seen some biased takes there against anything remotely related to lebron

[payton2kemp]

Not at all. Just Lebron haters and conspiracy theorists.

[CIN-C-STAR]

Powerful, dark entity?
Lol, c'mon man. They just want to bring peace to the NBA universe.

[HiDef]

CAA is the dark shadowy agency you're looking for. Klutch is nothing, just a few NBA stars and not afraid to get ugly as hell with a front office.

[Forbes]

Klutch is a sports agency who goes above and Beyond to please their clients. Especially their favorite client Lebron James.

[Bel]

Powerful enough to get you to do their job for free.

[kingr]

If you do some digging, i'd best most of the people who post things about klutch also anti-Lebron when they post.

[BostonCouchGM]

yes but also in concert with the other powerful agents. Combined they exert a ridiculous amount of influence on owners and helped ruin the league.

[hauntedcomputer]

Klutch is primarily powerful because of Lebron, but the era of the entire NBA universe circling him (including other players being soft on his drives to the hoops or not manning up on him or not trying to beat his all-star teams) is drawing to a close. Players have been leaving Klutch lately now that they see Lebron can't orchestrate any more Tristan Thompson-type deals. Some of these guys probably figured out they were pawns in the bigger 4-D chess game.

It will be interesting to see how much influence Lebron has post-career. I imagine he'll move into ownership and will have to distance himself to create a veneer of separation.

Agents are good but their power is nothing compared to Silver and the billionaire owners, which is the club Lebron wants to join.

[Goomba3666]

Rich Paul and Adam Silver having casual dinner dates for Rich Paul to complain about Luke Walton is insane. Let alone the entire media egging on Anthony Davis to leave the Pelicans before the all-star break during the 2018-2019 season was different.

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/05/28/rich-paul-complained-adam-silver-luke-walton-lebron-james-lakers
https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-paul-complained-luke-walton-lebron-james-lakers-adam-silver-2019-5

Klutch was built off Lebron's back and Rich Paul owes his existence to Lebron at this point. So yeah - Bron, in a roundabout way, has a pool of players that he controls via Klutch.

Not sure how this is remotely controversial. Just a billionaire who has the power to steer things in his favor.

[Heat3]

When Lebron retires Klutch influence will decline. I agree the person that said Lebron just wants attention during the Finals. Players do stuff like this all the time. Morant did it earlier in the playoffs. Alex Rodriguez made some announcements during a World Series. Just attention seeking.

[Billy Goat]

Does Klutch represent any Euros? Also, with this finals matchup I think it kind of weakens their presence. Fans want to see their teams win and aren’t concerned with empowered players or whatever that means anyways.

[ConSarnit]

Klutch is primarily powerful because of Lebron, but the era of the entire NBA universe circling him (including other players being soft on his drives to the hoops or not manning up on him or not trying to beat his all-star teams) is drawing to a close. Players have been leaving Klutch lately now that they see Lebron can't orchestrate any more Tristan Thompson-type deals. Some of these guys probably figured out they were pawns in the bigger 4-D chess game.

It will be interesting to see how much influence Lebron has post-career. I imagine he'll move into ownership and will have to distance himself to create a veneer of separation.

Agents are good but their power is nothing compared to Silver and the billionaire owners, which is the club Lebron wants to join.

This is what I wonder as well. Did they build Klutch knowing the could leverage Lebron's power to build a client base to get a foot in the door? If that was their plan they've succeeded. If their plan was to get a foot in the door AND to continue to try and "run the league" (for lack of a better term) once Lebron is retired I don't know how that's going to play out.

Are they going to be happy possibly being just another agency? If they want real control it won't be that easy without Lebron looming over everything. Have they burned bridges? Tough to know without polling NBA execs.

[JonFromVA]

Klutch is primarily powerful because of Lebron, but the era of the entire NBA universe circling him (including other players being soft on his drives to the hoops or not manning up on him or not trying to beat his all-star teams) is drawing to a close. Players have been leaving Klutch lately now that they see Lebron can't orchestrate any more Tristan Thompson-type deals. Some of these guys probably figured out they were pawns in the bigger 4-D chess game.

It will be interesting to see how much influence Lebron has post-career. I imagine he'll move into ownership and will have to distance himself to create a veneer of separation.

Agents are good but their power is nothing compared to Silver and the billionaire owners, which is the club Lebron wants to join.

This is what I wonder as well. Did they build Klutch knowing the could leverage Lebron's power to build a client base to get a foot in the door? If that was their plan they've succeeded. If their plan was to get a foot in the door AND to continue to try and "run the league" (for lack of a better term) once Lebron is retired I don't know how that's going to play out.

Are they going to be happy possibly being just another agency? If they want real control it won't be that easy without Lebron looming over everything. Have they burned bridges? Tough to know without polling NBA execs.

Rich Paul can attract new clients simply because he has LeBron on speed-dial, but I'm not really seeing him try to leverage his influence beyond what he does for LeBron. He has a ton of clients on the Lakers, but they're pretty spread out on other teams. He didn't do things like threaten that Darius Garland would be upset or leave if the Cavs didn't pay Tristan Thompson or Collin Sexton. He hasn't tried to direct his his clients to one team (other than to benefit LeBron).

So, while I think he could try to turn Klutch in to something more than just another agency, it's not clear to me that his goal or what his clients want.

Speaking of Collin Sexton - Rich did manage to quietly get him paid by Utah in the Mitchell trade when no team was approaching him as an RFA coming off a serious injury. That required a level of finesse and respect between Sexton, Paul and the Cavs; but nothing nefarious and whatever was said was kept private.

[D.Brasco]

Are you using Real GM forum posts as citations?

[Snotbubbles]

Klutch Sports isn't just representing NBA players. One of their agents just got Jalen Hurts a $250M contract in the NFL. The top NBA players don't need agents, they just get max contracts. Other sports, you need agents because the contracts are so complicated.

[VFX]

As an agency that represents players? On paper they are the same as every other agency.

Where people don't like Klutch comes from the fact that it's indirectly run by Lebron James, who already has an extreme amount of influence over the league. People are lying to themselves if they don't think he has final say over any decision on players that influence his teams.

What player would be absolved of indirectly owning an agency, while actively playing amongst those players? No one.

We started talking about the Lakers, who were in a slump. Paul brought up the Nets, saying that they were “the only team that can beat us.” This sounded like a strangely partisan observation for an agent with clients across the N.B.A., especially after all the criticism he had received when bringing Anthony Davis to the Lakers. “I’ve got six guys on the team,” he said, shaking his head. “C’mon.” - Thats straight from RP's mouth.

Agents dont talk this way regarding teams as clients. Its just another backdoor way of influencing teams/roster decisions outside of media manipulation represented by Klutch. The fact that its allowed its mind blowing.

[Mak]

Klutch sports is a stain on Lerbron’s legacy.