Rich Paul reveals he had to "pay the price" for being LeBron James' friend: "Receipts used to mean something"

The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted LeBron James with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. At the time, James was the rookie who had the most expectations ever coming into the league and was burdened with the task of making the Cavaliers great.

Fast forward to 2024, James is preparing for his 22nd season and it goes without saying that the King has lived up to the immense expectations set for him at the beginning of his career. As good as James has been on the court, he has built an excellent portfolio off the court as well.

Rich Paul , his high school friend and agent who founded the Klutch Sports Group, the most well-known basketball agency in the world, makes sure LeBron has everything he needs on and off the court. Also, their friendship has been on another level for years, but it wasn't always like that.

Paid a price for being LeBron's friend

Today, Rich is a super agent and represents a plethora of athletes in the Association. However, his journey to establish 100+ clients has been far from easy.

In fact, the 43-year-old revealed he had to pay the tax for being the 4x NBA champ's friend in an episode of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast via YouTube.

"I had to pay a tax for being LeBron's friend," Paul said. "I pay a tax for that. You [are] LeBron's friend, so you are not going to care about me. You got him. Receipts normally mean something. Used to mean something. But sometimes, in most cases, I had to pay a tax for that."

Rich further elaborated that after paying all the taxes, he was left with his dignity and pride. But at the end of the day, he was happy to overcome these hurdles and challenges in his career as a sports agent.

Had to earn James' trust

James and Paul's friendship goes a long way, but their professional relationship didn't begin until 2012. Prior to that, the King was represented by CAA's Leon Rose.

In the same interview with the above-mentioned podcast, Rich explained why James ultimately chose him as his agent, albeit after nine years.

"Trust is built over time, and so today, we got a whole tanker of trust. But just talking about what made him allow me to represent him and have that trust currently today, people don't understand, and that's where I look at our environment now; you can't skip steps. I didn't start representing him [LeBron] until my ninth year," Paul added.

The hard work ultimately paid off. Today, Klutch Sports Group represents many big names besides LeBron James, like Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, De'Aaron Fox, Tyreese Maxey, and others.

Related: "This is the life he chose, he chose to aspire to be a professional athlete" - Rich Paul says Bronny James should prepare for the grind of the NBA