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LeBron James Not Happy With NCAA's "Rich Paul Rule"

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00:00:11

Hello Lakers nation.

00:00:12

My name is Trevor Lane, senior writer for lakers nation dot com.

00:00:15

And this is the Lakers nation news feed breaking down all of the latest Lakers news today.

00:00:20

We're talking about LeBron James, and he is not pleased with something the NC double is doing.

00:00:26

We're going to dive into it first quick shot into our sponsor up time energy drinks.

00:00:30

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00:00:39

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00:00:40

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00:00:44

Okay, so what's happening right now is the NC double has just come out with a new Siri's of rules the LeBron James feels like might be aimed at his agent, Rich Paul. Take a look at this.

00:00:57

John Rothstein of CBS Sports Reports.

00:01:00

The NCWO has officially added criteria for agents who wish to represent student athletes testing the waters for the N B.

00:01:07

A draft that criteria being that they have a bachelor's degree be certified with E N B players in the National Basketball Players Association for a minimum of three years.

00:01:17

Take an in person exam at the office in Indianapolis.

00:01:22

Those air the new rules that the NC Double A is proposing.

00:01:27

Now, look, what's been going on is that the N B.

00:01:30

A has always had this agreement with the Were agents who are n b A.

00:01:35

Certified or certified by the N V p a have also been certified by the NC Double A.

00:01:41

There's been that kind of reciprocity.

00:01:44

Uh, s.

00:01:45

So the way this works is that players would wind up going into the N b a draft.

00:01:51

And it used to be that once you hired an agent, that was it.

00:01:53

You couldn't go back to school.

00:01:54

Well, then the finally went ahead and changed the rule, which made a tonic because, look, a lot of guys feel like their draft stock is really, really high.

00:02:03

They feel like, Oh, you get there and they find out Okay, maybe I'm not.

00:02:06

But by that point, if they've hired an agent, they can't go back.

00:02:09

And that was a problem.

00:02:10

And so now players can do that.

00:02:12

Players can hire an agent, they contest the waters, they can get some real feedback and I'm talking about valuable information about their own draft stock.

00:02:19

And if they find out Hey, I'm I might just be a second rounder.

00:02:23

Maybe I'm not even gonna be drafted.

00:02:24

Then they can go ahead and withdraw their name from the N B A draft, and then they can go back to college like this is a great thing.

00:02:31

This is a good thing for the n. B.

00:02:33

00:02:34

This is a good thing for college basketball could, because you can have these high level players coming back into college athletics.

00:02:40

And so that's That's an important step here.

00:02:42

But now the NC double is throwing this rule in and look LeBron James.

00:02:48

He is not pleased.

00:02:49

Investment about found out about it.

00:02:51

He took to Twitter and check this out.

00:02:53

LeBron James takes to Twitter instantly tweets out hashtag the rich Paul rule and then he said, Can't stop, won't stop they big, mad and scared.

00:03:03

Nothing will stop this movement and culture over here.

00:03:06

Sorry, Not sorry.

00:03:07

And then LeBron went on a re tweeting spree started retweeting people who were complaining about this new rule.

00:03:14

Even Retweeted Rich Eisen at one point let me throw that up here.

00:03:20

So he retreated.

00:03:21

Tweeted Rich Eisen, who had actually quote tweeted LeBron, who said hashtag stay woke and had referenced a number of articles that pointed out the rich.

00:03:30

Paul has been kind of bucking the trend.

00:03:32

He's been the guy that, without a college degree, has managed to find success as an agent has been doing some incredible work and that there's a lot of agents who have kind of come up through the system the old way, who feel uneasy about that who feel threatened by Rich Paul and the success that he's had.

00:03:49

They're frustrated with him not having to go through, go through school, go through, get a law degree like a lot of agents have.

00:03:56

And so they don't like the rich.

00:03:58

Paul was able to come in and kind of hit the ground running as an agent, and LeBron says, That's a joke, And rich eyes and you can see here does well, Bridge Eisen says.

00:04:06

You know who also didn't graduate college Steve Jobs, Peter Jennings, Ellen.

00:04:11

Too generous and so on.

00:04:12

Imagine if people in there in industry's lobbying to make sure they couldn't apply their crafts with some silly rule about needing a degree requiring requiring Rich Paul to get a B a is B s.

00:04:25

I mean, look, this is This is heavy stuff here.

00:04:28

LeBron James is not happy at all with what NC double basketball is trying to do with his agent, Rich Paul, and other agents that are like Rich Paul, other agents who who may not have all of those requirements.

00:04:41

Maybe they don't have three years certified with the n B p A.

00:04:44

Suddenly, those guys can't represent college basketball players.

00:04:47

That's basically what it's coming down to the saying.

00:04:50

A guy like Rich Paul can't represent college athletes because he doesn't have a bachelor's degree and look a LeBron.

00:04:59

He hasn't come out and said it, but let's face it, there's probably some elements of racism and play here, too.

00:05:05

It's pretty ridiculous that the is going to these lengths and throwing in this rule.

00:05:12

I mean, look, it makes sense to a degree because look, they represent colleges.

00:05:17

Colleges are all about getting degrees.

00:05:18

So of course, they're going to want agents who, representing college athletes to have degrees right.

00:05:23

You can kind of put that together, but and agent is is not like every other job agent by trade is somebody who is has to be very, very result oriented, someone who has to get the job done.

00:05:38

Okay, if you don't have a college degree, it doesn't really matter as long as you're getting the job done.

00:05:43

And I don't think anyone, regardless of what your opinion is of rich Paul can argue that he isn't getting the job done.

00:05:50

That the players he represents are getting solid.

00:05:52

Contracts aren't getting good representation.

00:05:55

I mean, look, we know he represents LeBron James.

00:05:57

He represents Anthony Davis, a fellow Laker Draymond Green emits a number of high profile N b A players, and these are guys who are are pretty happy with their representation at this point.

00:06:08

These are guys who have signed a big contract.

00:06:10

So the bottom line is, does it matter that Rich Paul doesn't have a degree? No, because he's getting the job done.

00:06:17

Clearly, he's proven that his body of work shows that.

00:06:20

So why would you hold them to that standard that Oh, you have to have a degree? Well, he's repping guys like LeBron James and Anthony Davis and you're gonna tell him a no.

00:06:28

You can't come represent a kid who might be wavering about declaring for the N B A draft.

00:06:34

It's a it's a little insane.

00:06:35

And then the throwing, Of course, because it's college, you've got to show up and actually taken exam in order in order to be NC Double A certified.

00:06:43

So look, the says they're protecting athletes and all in all of these things, but yeah, look, a lot of people have seen this as pushback against Rich Paul again, I mentioned before there's this kind of groundswell of people who feel like like Rich Paul has has bucked the trend.

00:07:01

Buck the system and he's changed things up and look.

00:07:04

Change is scary for people who are part of the status quo.

00:07:07

Someone coming in and doing things differently is scary.

00:07:10

But you know what? A lot of times it takes someone that comes in and does things differently, has a different background, has a fresh perspective.

00:07:17

That's when we see positive changes really happen.

00:07:20

And that's just that's just societal issues as well as professional sports.

00:07:24

Sometimes it takes that so I have to take someone from a different background to change things up to find things that were wrong, that we're going overlooked before to switch the system so with you can see where people would feel threatened by Rich Paul.

00:07:38

But again, LeBron isn't out of line here and standing up for his age, and I don't think there's any question about that now.

00:07:45

I'll finish with this, though.

00:07:47

Fortunately, I know everyone was worried about this.

00:07:49

LeBron James.

00:07:51

His night wasn't ruined by this or anything like that, because guess what? He's still celebrated Taco Tuesday.

00:07:59

That's right.

00:08:00

He actually had a pretty funny video on his Instagram story, where he pretended like he was all upset and frustrated and said his his energy just isn't there right now.

00:08:08

And there's been these things going on and then course he exploded in that trademark LeBron James grin.

00:08:13

And today and all of that, which is becoming a great thing.

00:08:16

And gosh, I wish the Lakers wound up with Taco Fall because that would have just fit in perfectly with LeBron's hole Taco Tuesday stick but pretty cool.

00:08:25

LeBron was still able Thio, sit down his family and enjoy Taco Tuesday despite this news about what's going on with what's being called the Rich Paul rule.

00:08:35

So for more on this story and everything else going on in the world of the Los Angeles Lakers, make sure you head over to lakers nation dot com.

00:08:42

And, of course, give us a follow on Social media at Lakers Nation on Twitter and Facebook at Lakers Nation.

00:08:47

Official on Instagram.

00:08:49

And don't forget to go to subscribe to our channel on YouTube till next time.

00:08:52

My name's Trevor Lane.

00:08:53

You can follow me on Twitter at Trevor Underscore Lane.

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