Take off your tin foil hats, Lakers fans. Though Rich Paul seems like he makes all the personnel decisions for the Los Angeles Lakers, the superagent confirmed that he has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations at the Staples Center.
In an interview with SiriusXM's NBA Radio, Paul flatly denied that he has any sort of relationship with the Lakers beyond his representation of Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
"Are you kidding me?" he said when he was asked if he runs Los Angeles. "I love what I do, man. I love the guys I represent. I love being in that process."
While he said he might be interested in buying a team one day, Paul said that he still enjoys being an agent.
"It's special. I enjoy it," he said. "It's not work for me."
Paul doubled down on his initial statement to close out.
"I don't run the Lakers. I don't want to run the Lakers, but the Lakers are a great organization," he said. "They've been nothing but great to me, per se, through the guys that I represent."
It's unlikely that the Lakers would have Paul, given the general sentiment about the agent around the team. In a bombshell report about the team's culture of dysfunction written by ESPN's Baxter Holmes, Paul was painted as a wedge who was sowing dissent against coaches and players in order to receive deals for his clients.
"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," Homes wrote at the time. "Given those perceptions, one former Lakers player described Paul’s presence on the team charter as a 'culture killer.'"
