Wake that ass up in the morning.
The Breakfast Club Morning.
Everybody's DJ Envy Charlamagne to God. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. His book is out today. Yes, indeed, ladies and gentlemen, Rich Paul, welcome, sir, Thanks for having me.
How's everything? It's great man, I see you in years, Rich, long time.
Last time we was together, we went to we had like a little brunch.
We had a brunch. This is like damn like.
That was a wild that was like that was over ten.
Years, twenty eleven, Yeah, twenty twelve, look at you now, Rich.
It's great, man.
Absolutely.
First of all, I will tell you how I love your book lucky Me than I read it thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. But I need to know the process of this book because I know the publishers probably.
Wanted more like your agent life.
Now you know what is what is your relationship with Lebron But you didn't get him that. You gave him all east Side of Cleveland, very detailed, and I appreciated that.
But how did you get the publishers to agree with that?
Well, this wasn't a published the book was my idea along with my team, and you know, it's a timing thing. So it was like, you know, would you ever do a book. I'm like, yeah, if I do a book, though, I don't want it to be a puff piece because I think it's important for people to There's people inspiring to be you or be in your position, and they see the successes, right, they see courtside of games, the negotiated deals and all that, and so people say, well,
you know, I can be rich Paul. You got these companies looking for the next young black guy with a cool jacket on to be their representation of a rich Paul. But I'm like, now you're missing a lot. If you want to be me today, let's start here. Let me educate you on some of the things that I know would resonate with you. I know it resonates with you, you and everybody, and so I just didn't want to write a puff piece. I wanted to be something that
was impactful education. You know, you know, because experiences are education. People look at it and what I didn't realize and I realized even more today. You know, when you're going through shit as a kid, like you read about my mom, you read about, you know, just some dark days. It's like the world is coming to an end, right, you think like everything is crumbling. But then in the position I sitting today, I'm like, oh shit, like those are
like superpowers for me, right, because now these boardrooms. You know, I'm on the board of Live Nation, I'm on the board of Uta, I'm on the board of the Lakma, you know, coming from this place, this kid, and so it's weird how it shaped me and gave me just this unbelievable molding, if that makes sense, right. And so I think as we were writing a book, I wanted to make sure that it was not exactly what you
what you was, because that's what people would think. And when they hear the title, they immediately go to, oh, he met Lebron in the airport, that's why he's lucky. And I'm really being extremely sarcastic to those simple minded thinkers like that. You know, I took some shot. I guess I took a little page out of shot of Mainz book with the sarcast.
But it's interesting when you said that, because when you read the book, it's still luck. Because I was always the person that never believed in luck. I'm still trying to yeah, like create of luck, you know what I mean. So, so to be in the position that you're in right now, do you think it was luck, hard work or hustle.
But I want, I want to start from the game because somebody listening might not know who Rich Paul is, right, they might They might not know who Rich Paul is.
So yeah, I don't want to take that for granted.
Sure now, so super agent, you you, I want to say, manage the careers of a lot of athletes, not just in basketball and football and other sports as well. And you started from Ohio, but you didn't start with with this on your mind. So let's break down where you came from in Ohio and how you started because your story is is is crazy just talking about your pops, where you came from, and what puts you into this place. So let's start from there.
So Maya grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, like you said, on the east side of Cleveland. It's an area called Glenville. It's Glenville, and but there's a street called Saint Clair, which is basically our broadway, right, and every every street off of Saint Clair is essentially its own block and it's the neighborhood, but it's but it's also separate. So you know, it was we grew up, you couldn't really go to certain corner stores. If you wasn't from you could,
but you couldn't. Like and a weird thing is I could go anywhere in the city, but a friend of mine maybe not. They might not accept him like that or whatever. So I always had this this support system, right and the protection as well. You know, I think just based upon a lot of shit that I did is as growing up, but an athlete, you know, someone who I didn't really horse play as a kid because I was always about betting and getting some money some type of way love fashion, but I was into sports.
I played sports, but I wasn't the best at it. I wasn't like growing up on my street, I was the best, but as I grew I wasn't the best player on my high school team. But it didn't really it didn't deter me from wanting to play and we wanted to state championship, you know, two years ago. I went to state championship three years straight in high school. But I wasn't good. I wasn't the best player on the team by far.
Hey the book, you talked like he was getting buckets.
Now, well, it depends on what the age I was. I'm still one of the best shooters out there period. You could talk to some NBA guys about this. They'll tell you that. But what I'm saying is, but I was the best off the court in certain things.
Right.
I love to get drassket fly. I had this confidence in any room, and I hung with older people. See, people don't understand I was thirteen, like hanging with y'all. So I'm thirteen years old, niggas say today today. And so when I was young, I remember I had I lived with both grandmothers, so my mom was struggling and we had to move in with my mother's mom in eighty six eighty seven, And then in nineteen ninety I moved to Saint Louis for a small stint because my
mother's from Saint Louis. I went to Vashona High School. I had a ton of family in Saint Louis that wasn't working for me, my brother and my sister. So my dad put us on the Greyhound back to Cleveland. When we moved there for a short stint, we just
stayed in a small apartment, just us. And you know, like that's when you're reading a book where I used to have to walk around and look on the ground and pick up a quarter or nicol or diamond, buy me a cheeseburger or whatever, and I start betting guys at the park without having any money to get and my jump shot got better because of that. But anyway, so then I moved in with my father's mom and it was her mother and my uncle Charlie. The average
age in the house is sixty five. Right, I'm ten, So I'm watching Meet the Press and Larry king Liven sixty minutes and ironically I'm on sixty minutes last night, which is insane. So it was just I was that kid, that kid you see on the cover of the book that's thirteen, fourteen years old. I chose that because that's where there's a fork in the road in life. We all know that. Right at that age, you start being
held accountable for your actions in the neighborhood. You start to and you see guys you hung with every day, and now y'all start to go. Y'all separate ways based upon your interest. So my interest was fashion, getting money girls, you know, and sports that those were my four pillars, and so it took me down this path. But I grew up in my dad's store and on that corner rn J and Jake confectioner. Yeah, you know, on that corner. Man,
I was never allowed to be a kid. You saw things, you heard things that you probably shouldn't have seen as a kid, of course, and you start to mimic things, you start to do things. And so I aspired to be like certain guys on and off the court, right, And so I know you love real estate, Nindy. I never forget. I got my first apartment and my man that I went to lunch with, he's like, his name is Text. He's like, how long are you going staying up in the apartment. I'm like, what do you mean?
I just got it. He's like, yeah, Bud, you should be thinking about buying a house, owning something, you know. I'm like, well, I'm nineteen years old, Like what are you talking? So he but he showed me when you go in the house, okay, this is kind of your money's in your kitchen and bathrooms. And you know, so when I bought my first home at twenty years old. The first thing I did was I redid the kitchen in bath. So I had this I was young, but
I also had this older type soul to me. And so all those stories are in the book, but that's who I am.
And so that picture.
Lets me know that story. All that picture lets me know everything you said in that book was true.
You ain't getting that hair and.
Bone that's in front of my dad's story, by the way. And you know, and by then, by that time, by this age, Christmas gifts like if I got something for Christmas is because I bought it.
You know.
It wasn't like I never spent I can't remember a Christmas I ever spent with my mother, you know, prior to being grown. So you know it was miss Peach Holidays. She was a g by the way, you loved her. You eat sweet potato pine. Yeah, you would fly to Cleveland that for her, you know, or have her ship it to you. It was that good. But it was just a thing where like you're saying, that picture was
taken by a lady. Her name was Picture Lady, and Picture Lady would go around to the different blocks and she had a polaroid camera with film and she would charge us five dollars for the pictures, and so that would just happen to be one to me. I may have some dudes in there, and you know, back in the day, you would get that picture to a girl
you like or whatnot. And I was thinking about picture lady the other day, and she was somebody's mother and obviously she was strung out as well, but thinking she wasn't right. She was actually Instagram before Instagram, right, because what she was doing was she was allowing us to tell our story through this picture of what we were
doing at that time in the moment. I know exactly when that was day and everything, well, I know exactly the moment that was because I said to her, hold on, let me take my shirt off, and you know, the one knee on the like, everything in that picture was detailed strategically like that because in my mind, I'm giving that to a girl, so I wanted, you know, the whole look to be what it was.
She was documenting.
Yeah, she was documented. So when I talk about the street aspect of it, I'm not glorifying it. But what I'm saying is when you young, especially young and black, just a minority in these in these poverty stricten communities. You don't grow up next to people with careers, right, you don't. You don't understand how corporate America actually works. And so if you have any type of entrepreneurial spirit, your options are so small, right, and then the opportunity
is even smaller. There are no opportunities, and so you you know, you turn to certain things. And when you think about that, people talk about how to get to this point. I can't ask you. You know, you talk about lucky me. Part of that is I am lucky to grow up in the community. I am lucky to have a dad who had a I learned math work in my dad's cash register and playing people's lottery numbers.
And you know, if your auntie been playing a number six sixty five for a whole year, and now she gets to the thing and this kid playing and she get home and six sixty five come out, but her tickets say six sixty four. Oh oh, you either better have the money that she missed out on or it's gonna be some smoke in the city, you know. And so that that was the pressure for me. There's no pressure in what I'm doing today because of look at the journey out for I was just trying to survive
the day. You know, you come outside, you just trying to get home that night. So we couldn't plan ahead. There was no in the summertime. We going to Europe for two weeks and travel o. You know, we barely went downtown. I went with my dad on the bus, but I got friends that's never been to the airport.
You also talk about, you know, your mom being strung out, but when your father passed away, you actually started selling drugs, the same drugs that strung her out.
Yeah, So I respected my mom and my dad. I never wanted any part of that. But as you know, like and I respected my dad so much. And not to mention, my dad was like air traffic control for the hood. And that's the one thing like he didn't. He was a man of principal and moral and my dad was a man's man, like he was literally, you know, he's a man's man and I respected him so much. But when he passed away, it wasn't just that my
dad passed away. My brother was locked up, my uncle was locked up, my cousin John John was locked up, and my mother and sister are in Saint Louis, and so I'm really on an island, you know. And when I made that decision, I made the decision with the understanding that I also know what comes with this, and so if you're going to do it, I had to make a conscious decision to try to find the right within the wrong. And I was just trying to survive.
I'm not glorifying it because I think there's you have so much talent. I think there's people settle a lot, right, But back then, like I said, the options and the opportunity were so slim, and the things that I aspired to have and that I wanted, the only way to get it was to do And I was a hustler period in all every step of the way. I'm still hustling to this day. As you say, I came in and gave you guys athletics new balance and that's a sports, a pair of band I'm building. But yeah, man, like
I didn't. I don't glorify it, but it was something that at that moment in my life I had to do, or at least I felt I had.
I don't judge anybody for what they were doing while the survival mode.
Yeah, It's just what I felt I had to do. And again, but there was a conscious to it. There was just there was a strategy to it. There was a less it's more component to it as well.
And you knew what you were doing was wrong because when you lost that two fifty, you felt like you shouldn't have been doing that anyway anyway.
So I didn't even but I didn't even trip it, but I just kept I just kept kept going because you know, it wasn't for me, right, And sometimes I've never sat in my success even to this day. And I don't see you guys much, but if you ever see me, I'm gonna be the same person every time.
Right.
One thing about one thing about life growing up the way I did it, don't lie to you. It don't lie to you. So and I grew up around people that you know, you couldn't talk about it if you didn't live it. That's just how it was. We wasn't taking rental cars and putting rims on it and driving a freaknik and acting like this was my car. You know, we would never ever do that. So today in the chapter on your close, like those same principles stick to me.
There's just certain things I'm not going to do so as I'm representing players, I'm not going to ever lie to you about anything or for no amount of money. But the title agent, you know, that was always deemed as a shady thing. I made it glamorous, right, being seen, being out, being on the floor, dressing fly all that. That's just who I am. That's not because I'm an agent.
But then what I realized was, I'm saying to myself as I worked at another company and I'm looking at these guys representing players, I'm saying to myself, this is all transaction. This is why thinking about the Streets in the book, what the Streets does is it for most people, it's going to allow you to build bad habits right, get up late, You have nobody to answer to, You have no no structure, no scheduling, no anything, pretty much right, And every time you do something in a transaction form,
it feels like you've made money. Yeah, you've made money, but you haven't made profit. It's a different dynamic, but it makes you feel as if you did. But it's setting you back, right. And so that's why people never tend to build anything. And so I took that and I learned from that, and I said, you know what, these people, it's only about a transaction when a talent run out. They're not investing in the person at all. They're treating a person as if they're you know, pretty
much dumb. And the families, once they take the money, they took the money. And that's how it was, and that's how it still is in a lot of ways. And there's still a piece of families, especially and I target this towards black families. There's still a piece of black families that would rather do business with them than you for a number of things. And this is what I learned at my dad's store. When I worked to dad.
At my dad's store, we used to give people credit brown paper bag that come in, Miss Johnson needs some toilet paper, some soap. You would write it down. That's in the middle of the month. First of the month. Come around, everybody get they checks. And me and my brother catch you spending the money with the competition around the corner.
That's right, who probably white and you still but you still, oh, why you just don't come and pay us.
And it started to see in my mind that oh, when they see me with the New Jordans on in their mind, they're spending money with my dad and that's helping him make me look better than them. Right, it's the same thing today. So you know you you're rather spend it with or you're rather pay them, But when it comes to me, you want me to cut my fees.
How difficult was that when you are doing these deals with the NBA, NFL or whatever whatever organization it is because to them, like you said, they might not respect you as somebody else who's who doesn't look like that, that looks more like them than like you. How difficult it is to get in there and say, nah, it's still my worth, it's still my value. And for people that don't know, I just want to break down.
You started.
You met Lebron in the.
Airport, and airport.
Y'all connected on things outside of just sports. You're connected on fashion and familihood and this, that and the other. And you decided you wanted to be an agent, but you didn't go to streaming for sports management.
Yeah, so you put you on pay. I don't give them too much a book away, but.
That's what happened. So I was already going back and forth to Atlanta because it actually has started here. I came up on all women's bus trip with my man's mom was throwing and I actually, you know how you go over your man's house and she's in there frying chicken or whatever. I gave it. She was like, we're doing a bus trip for the girls. Whatever. Okay, gret I said, here he go. You know, three four hundred dollars take four people by much, it's like just sixty
five dollars apiece. Whatever, Like, yeah, go ahead, no problem, man, I'm in the gambling house. It's about two thirty three in the morning. My phone ring one night and they're like, she's like, where y'all at. I'm like, what, Like, yeah, we waiting on you guys. They park at a local grocery store and everybody park their car and you go
up and back. I wasn't gonna go. My man who was with me, his named mike E. My man who was with me, He's like, yo, we might as well go, bro, because we had just bought these scooters that go like one hundred and twenty five miles an hour, and in order for us to ride them without a helmet, you can have a helmet on or eyewear, So, you know, we wanted to fly eyewear. We wanted cardies, you know back then this is this is in two thousand, right,
two thousand and one pretty much. And so we come here and take the bus trip where they get off on Canal Street. Well, I definitely ain't shopping there. So him and I we hit, you know, we hit Fifth Avenue and hit all the story because we was flying like we would. This was what we was doing, right, And so at the corner of my eye when the NBA story was on, I think it's fifty third and fifth, I'm like, oh, I gotta go here because I got
these bo Jackson's on ice. I had these bow Jacksons on ice for like six months, and we used to buy sneakers. I'm not exaggerating literally every day, right, And so I wanted to latrell spree. Well, the white one because the number eight was outlined in black, and I had the black bo Jackson's. I wanted that to hit like that, And so I go in there.
So you had the orange blue bow Jackson, not the black white.
Black jack See, most people would put the white jersey with the white orange, but I didn't want that.
By the way, he says that in the book, like you literally said, That's how I know you paid.
Attention to that much. Thak you like everybody would do the orange.
Yeah, yeah, because you just exsume because he in New York could go to the Knicks, he get the bull.
But yeah, but I already had the bo Jackson. I just I wanted the spree well because of that outline. It could have been envy on the back, but I just wanted that eight black eight. And so while I'm in there, I'm in line, and I don't even know this young man's name, but this is crazy. When I'm in the store and I'm in line, I look and it's an Oscar Robertson Bucks, it's an Elgin Baylor Lakers, and it's a Bill Russell Celtics. I get to Elgin
Baylor and I get to Oscar Roberson. But prior to that, I asked him, I said, what is that section right there? This is very important? He said, that's our hardwood classics section. So I'm like, okay, hold on, let me go. I grab two jerseys. I'm thinking they, you know, one hundred dollars or whatever. I should go up to seven point fifty. I'm like, but I'm in line. I'm not gonna get out of line. And I'm like, you know, forget it, come on with it. Boom. So now when I get home,
we go back. I get home, I wear one jersey. It was this neighborhood called Superior Hill, and they throw a block party, right, so I knew I wanted to wear the Bucks with some butters and tams because that orange and green, I mean that green and red will hit with the tams with the butters. I didn't want to wear no red and white shoes or whatever. And then so I wore that, and everybody asked me about it.
But I was fly, so they always would ask me about the I was wearing Vershachi in like ninety four, like tight, when nobody was wearing Charlottagne. Would be would have got on me. But I got pictures of this, you know, And I was always a kid that would if I had one thousand dollars, I spent eight hundred on the sweater. It didn't matter to me. So anyway, so I do that, and I wear the Elgin Beta Lakers.
When I wear this jersey to the club called the Millennium everybody's asking me, and the millennium is every hood from everywhere is in here. So now I'm like, I get home first house I ever bought, and I had a little makeshift office, and I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't sleep. Man, I'm like, this is on my mind because everybody kept asking me. And I remember the kid said, that's our Hardwood Classic session section. So I'm already getting into about four point thirty in the morning. You know,
you can't really doze off my energy up. So I go into it and I get on the computer and it was still like might have been like it wasn't definitely wasn't Google. I don't think. I don't know what search engine, may be AOL or whatever. But I put in Hardwood Classics and distant replays came up. It was a story in Atlanta, and that was the first thing that popped up. So now I can't wait. It opened at nine called I buy three Jerseys. I do this, I repeat this for two months. I get close with
the guy's name is Andy Hymen. I get close with him. I say Andy, I'm hustling. I say, Andy, do you would you mind if I you know, and allowed me to invest in your store. He said, rich, if you serious, come and see me fly down. I had never been on the plane because you know we live in Cleveland. Do we drive everywhere in Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, everything is close, Philly, d C. So my man d Hodge, he graduated from
a school called Cleveland Heights. And when you graduate from Cleveland Heights as a as a man, most of these kids, especially the black kids, they went to hpcu's so they either went to Clark or Moorhouse. He was like, my man went to Clark. His name was Gerald. He lived in Marietta. He's like, my man went to Clark. Man, we can go to his spot. He'll let us stay
with him. I'll book the flights. Well, if anybody know de Hodge, he's kind of like he's not cheap, but he's cheap, you know in terms of he gonna spend the money wise. He so he found a flight on air Tran from Akron Canton. That's what got me flying out of Akron, Cant because if I would have booked the flight, I would have probably just took Delta out of Cleveland because it's a fifteen minute Rocketer Airport versus a forty five minute rochet because the way I think
the time I'm spending is money. But he didn't think that way, Thank god he didn't. And so now I get down there, I sleep on Gerald's couch. I'm sleep on Gerald's couch. They get up, take me to I get there eleven thirty. Is at twelve. I get there eleven thirty because the book away, man, am I yes, I just so, but but they should go and read. They still got tod But so when I have the meeting, Andy tells me, I can't let you invest, but if you work in the store, I'll allow you to get
forty percent off whatever you buy. But you know I'm trying to I'm like, come on with it. And that's what really started me going back and forth. So through that those travels, I actually met Lebron in the airport one day. That's what happened.
But it was interesting because Bron, you said, y'all, y'all kicked it became friends just on life, right.
Did he put you on salary? You don't even know why.
No. He called me down to his house one day, man, And by the way, I wasn't even looking at it from that perspective. But as we got cooler and cooler, he put me, you know, and I'm and I'm showing him a little. So I've been buying diamonds and so I was seventh eighth grade, so I'm showing him about stuff like that. And we really bonded over our mothers though. And I'm the last one too. I'm not from I don't play the fake cousin thing. I'm from Cleveland. They're
from Akron. We wasn't friends. It wasn't fake anything. It just it was a fake thing, it really was. And yeah, he called me down to his house one day. He asked me for my social Security. I'm like, man, no way, I'm gonnaiving you my social you know, you can't play with nobody's social But after about forty five minutes, forty
five minutes, I ended up giving it to him. And we had been to camps, Jordan Camp, Nike Camp, all these different camps and so yeah, man, like about a month or so later, my a check coming to mail and my mother. I didn't when I said I didn't know how to read a check. It's just because if you never got a check before, pretty much outside of a summer job at the post office. I did wasn't reading a check in terms of understanding pay period whatever,
no title or anything like that. And my mother was like, yeah, you know, you're making forty eight thousand pretty much a year, two thousand, whatever it was. And I'm like, cool, but nobody's called me and told me anything. So I called him. I was like, Yo, what am I supposed to be doing, Like, what's my job? He was like, I don't have nothing for you, bro, I don't got nothing. He was like, I just he told me, He's like, ever since you've
been around me, it's been nothing but love. Like I don't I don't feel threatened you damn sure, ain't no leech or anything like that. And I will figure out. I just gotta have you around me, cause like cause you know, like it's situations in which I remember one time he didn't he might not have wanted to sign an autograph for a kid or something, and I had a conversation with him, like you should sign an autograph because you just never know, not knowing that he was
gonna play, you know, thirty years in the league. But back then I'm saying, you don't know how long you know somebody's gonna want your autograph, and you also don't know what it does to this kid, right, And so I said to him, I said, God chooses people for a reason. And you know you got to play the cards. That's dept the car that's dealt to you. Just so happy to come with an abundance of pictures being taken, in autographs being signed. And this was prior to him being drafted.
By the way, I believe that all the wisdom your father instilled in you. And that's that's another reason I loved the book, because of the way you honor your father in the book. I believe a lot of the wisdom he instilled in you you were able to instill in Brawn one.
Hundred percent, you know, undred percent. Yea moment and it was and you know it was four of us, but I brought we all brought some different to the table. I brought that element, like you're saying, just that cold hard truth street, you know, a protection in a lot of ways he felt, and a confidence for all of us though, like you know, I would do. You know, I had corns and Jacobs and Rolexes, and if it's here man, not him, because his risk was too big.
But like I was a guy, I wanted everybody to look like something right, And so that mentality I got from my hood, Like if it was your turn, envy to go and buy the Jordans. You bought them for all ten of us. Damn you know, That's how it was. And if it was my turn, or if hours somebody had to go or and buy this, like they get them for it wasn't nothing like that right. Even when we brought the scooters, I didn't have the money on me. My man might had it. I'm like, he lived closer.
I'm like, just give me it, Just give me ten I'll give it to you when we get back down the way. He's like, okay, cool. You know that's how. That's how our relationship. And I'm still friends to this day with pretty much all the guys I grew up with. I can't hang out with him because I'm in a different space. But when I go home, I don't really have no new friends. These are you know, my friends.
Why was it important for you to honor and celebrate your father the way you did?
In Lucky Me.
He was just such a great example from me and growing up, most of my friends didn't have their father. And even though my father didn't live in the house with me, he was just such a great example, and not for me, for everybody. Everybody respected my man. When my dad funeral, you had two thousand people there from the age of three to ninety three. Wow. Everybody came
and paid their respects. And I never forget. A man came in my dad's store one day after he pass and he was like big rich here and he was like, nah, man, you know he died. This grown man. He had to be about fifty seven years old. Man, you would have felt like he got hit by It was just it hit him hard. He couldn't believe it. Because my dad helped people grow. My dad helped people. He raised a lot of these people, and men and women like girls, if they got pregnant and didn't know how to tell
their parents, they come to my dad. Guys went to jail. The payphone in my dad's store when you call a lot of guys that went to jail, they would call and my dad would actually bond him out, so you know, and a lot of ways, that actually saved my life in a lot of ways because I had so much protection from the foundation that my dad, my uncle, my
brother laid down. So when I'm in the back alleys and I'm gambling behind abandoned building or the basement of abandoned house, for me to make it out of there with the money of this guy that I know, I know what he do. I know. And that's the thing about the business I'm in. I don't come from a place to where you can have anonymous people going who's hype and talk bad about rich Paul Like, I don't give a shit about any of that. But I'm a stand on business and so I also don't play that
aspect of it. And when I had the conversation on gills Pot with Stephen A. Smith, remember when I said that's cap. I wasn't trying to be negative towards him. I'm saying this cap because I come from an environment where I survived that energy for somebody to tell me get the you know.
Oh you talk about Stephen A. Smith when he said.
When he said he told me to get the fuck out of his face, I'm like, you never said that to me. Not because I'm this tough guy, because I'm for I'm for peace prophet, but I'm a stand on what I believe in. It's because where I come from, that energy is every day and if I can survive, navigate my way throughout that and get to this point, I'm I'm in Disney World right now. I'm talking about in terms of the energy and the aura and just
everyday life trying to make it out. My energy is not gonna push you to say that to me nobody, And that was that was my thing, not because it's this tough thing. No, it's I never my aura doesn't exude that, and so that's what But it's because of how I grew up.
Speaking of podcast, why you disrespect Michael Jordan like that? On the podcast?
I didn't disrespect Michael Jordan.
You said that he you said bron is Platinum and Michael God damn.
I said, for me, the whatever you call them, the answer for me because again in Okay, the way I'm looking at it.
Is you never respected Michael Jordan too. You said that in the book.
I did not see. I did not say that, But you're not gonna do that.
You said you said you respected him on the court, but off the court, he wasn't for the culture basically what you said.
No, I said, I respected him on the court, of course, but there was no touch. Michael Jordan was a different guy off the court.
You know.
I had several examples of Michael Jordan off the court, right, So that's not a slight to me. I love Michael Jordan, by the way, every shoe until like after fourteen, because it started getting a little weird every game I used to watch the commercials. Wouldn't even shore I was a Michael Jordan.
Everything you said about Jordan in the book, I understood exactly what you mean.
Yeah, but that's my thing. So like I was more culturally, yeah, but but okay, So when you think about a guy like Alan Iverson, imagine if Alan Iverson had a rich Paul. Yeah, you see what I'm saying. It's a different dynamic because I understand him. I understand culture, and I know what those braids and what that armsleeve did, and I understand the business that that that didn't necessarily go with rebound.
Who you were talking with back then, Nike? Did Nike? You understand it because he was there. It's not like I'm sure Nike off of him something.
Alan Iverson knew what his agent told him, you can spend it higher, which way you want to spend it. And if you don't know culture, you don't know. Just shoot, how how many how many pairs of sneakers you think his agent bought?
I don't know, but I know I bought a bunch of the man I'm just saying prior.
To Alan, I how many pairs of sneakers you think his agent probably bought?
Yeah? Probably nothing exactly.
So how could you? How could you do a shoe deal for me? And you don't. You don't have no because you're gonna get very few guys that can actually move product. Everybody have a signature shoe cannot move product. So that shit just for your ego. When you have a signature shoe, to go is to build a signature business. There's been very few guys that can build a signature business.
That's true.
Okay, So my thing is, you can't help me make that decision. Now, you can help ninety nine point nine percent of the players make a decision on a shoe deal, because it's just pretty simple. If you don't care about the brand, pretty much, most guys go on to where who's paying the most money. It's only gonna work while I'm playing. But if you're an alan iverson. That ain't what you need. You need somebody that understands culture, understands cool,
understands product. You get what I'm saying, because you have the opportunity to build a business that can have sustainability in the marketplace much longer than you play.
He still eat off the answers, though only because it's something that the agent did or somebody took some money away.
Now his data deferred based upon his spending habits, so they deferred his money, which was great. I'm not knocking that, But you also could have got the money right now and diversified his portfolio to where he couldn't touch it and let that money compound and investigate it. He's paying up you know. Then now he's paying capital gains instead of paying an income tax. Right, So I mean, I'm
not knocking it. I'm just saying for him, it was the right thing in terms of, oh, he likes to do this, so we're going to do this so he doesn't mess it up for his family or whatever the case may be, which you have to appreciate that. But there's also a side to where you can educate him on what you're doing and put that money in the dictor you give what I'm saying, because if I'm not getting it to fifty two, then look at what was he thirty two? So twenty years that money not working
for me? Is that necessarily the right thing too? Like, I don't know, I'm not again, I'm not knocking. I'm just saying the way I think versus.
You know, got you? Yeah, I got it. Let's go back to the platinum Antlast thing.
Though, No, Okay, So all I'm saying is that's just for me. I think people people oftentimes want you to think how they think for whatever reason. Obviously we know MJ's a goat of his era. No, he's the goat of his era.
He's the goat Rich's okay.
Of listen, you can't compare eras man like because you can't fallt MJ for the era he played in. You can't fault Lebron for the era he played in. You can't fault Steph Curry for changing it. Steph Curry changed the game of basketball and the way it's played. My coach Frank Novak or coach j May rest in peace of Glenville, legendary coach. If you stepped across half court and shot forty foot jumper. The only guy I know did that was Damon Stringer Cleveland Heights. Gard Cappeletti let
him do that, but he actually made him. That's a bad shot. Steph Curry turned a bad shot into a great shot for Steph Curry, not for everybody. You get what I'm saying. We can knock those things. And again, when you talk about the Jordan Lebron, everybody gonna have their own opinion. You're tired, you're entired to that. Michael Jordan was the best guy I ever seen play the game of basketball until twenty years of Lebron. Me saying twenty years of Lebron. That's not a knock because Lebron
could also Lebron could also play with Mike. But I think Lebron would have been just as good in Mike's era.
Do you think people will ever fully appreciate Bron. No, if we keep comparing him to Michael Jordan.
That's my thing, and but it's but it's because people Lebron was the first person that did things how he wanted to do it right, unapologetic, unapologetically. They wanted him to do everything like Mike well, I don't have to do that right, and it's not that shouldn't be a knock on me.
Good marketing, though, Like Mike, everybody wanted to be like Mike.
Yeah, but you know everybody wanted to be like Mike. That was a great. That was a great you know.
When you think about himself.
But when you think about that, that.
Shot hurts you. That bad man beat Cleveland in the playoffs.
No, I actually I was actually Mike fan. I was actually I'm still a Mike fan. I talked to Mike all the time, like it's not that's not a thing.
Do y'all argue about who's better him?
Aroun Me and Mike never had we argue, but we had we go on the base about different things. I got the utmost respect for Mike. We're gonna rebate debates about different things. But I'm also a truth like I don't sugarcoat things. And I'm never gonna get in the room and it could be Jay z in here and Mike and here, and then here comes Charlotte Magne and I act like I don't know you, or I start talking different. I'm not gonna get to New York and start talking like I'm from New York, I don't. We
don't play that where I'm from. So it don't matter who it is on the other end. If I believe something, that's what I believe. It's not a slight to anybody. I think Mike's to go. I also think Lebron's to go.
I agree with that.
I think the antlers are a little different for different reasons. That has nothing to do with the game of basketball, though.
It's if he has the problem with Lebron Jordan thing because it always turns into what what type of man they are off the court? Now?
Yeah, but I'm not I'm not looking at that either, because I can't. I can't judge Mike for a type of man. Mike's a great, great man, take care of his family, kids, everything so great business time, my top five all timetime. You know, people be trying to front on Isaiah Thomas from a point guard perspective, like they need to stop that, go stop because Zeke. Very few guys touching Zeke. So from a point guard perspective, there's Zeke,
there's Magic, there's Steph you know. Yeah, I mean yeah, I would, I would, I would even throw even though he hasn't won a championship yet. As a point guard, you know, you gotta respect what what CP has done to you know, you.
Say five point guard, you just five players. He's players.
Yeah, but it's tough. But my top five of all time, Bron Mike. I mean, I gotta put Steph in there now because at three, not in no particular, I'm doing positions. Yeah. Man, See that's where it gets tough, because I gotta put I gotta put Kobe in there too.
You got to think about it.
No, No, I'm just saying I gotta put Kobe in there. That's four four and then ship you magic, you go shack, you go nah, because I already got my point guard and I rock with magic. But I mean, you know I would go shack. Yeah, I would probably go shack. But you know it's the whole top five. I don't do top five. You know, if I would, that's my team that nobody can beat. That's my team. But then when you talk about just great players, Kevin Durants a
great player. Despite what anybody has to say, the league is full of great players right now. Giannis is a great player. You know, Damian Lillard, you know, like people try to get on a guy like a d But there's no better basketball player. When you talk about Anthony Davis when he's playing the game of basketball level, he's unbelievable. But our league is in the But these young guys today, you look at what Jason Tatum, I mean, all these and I have the guys that I represent, the young
guys that I represent. We got dogs Man Garland, Maxie John, tay Trey, you know, Miles Bridges is back. You got you got, I mean, we got so many Zach Lavine, Darrin File in.
The world just playing. So maybe what was the dude named Drew Rosenhouse. Maybe a little bit, but not.
Because you understand, like I'm appreciative of my guys, You're only as strong as the guys allow you to be. My guys state, And it's I'm not just representing them as basketball players. There are young men, they're people. We talk about everything. Draymond Draymond is at my house more than me. I don't even have to be there. Draymond could be in my house right now.
That's my favorite play in the league. And it's not because I just like the way he leads on the.
Court, and I like to show, you know, the young guys coming up right. Like I said, you know, this year our draft was was great. Not because we had every pick one through ten. No, it's not about that, because if you do the numbers, there's on sixty picks a lot of guys will make it the second deals. But the character of guys is what I really focus on just as much as the talent today. And I
can't name everybody. I was just naming a few guys, but you know, the way I go about and we go about our business as a company, it's just different. We know I'm not I know I'm not gonna be able to represent every player. Every family don't want to hear the truth when you're in a when you're in a meeting, And at the same time, you know you still got parents that believe in the so called establishment, and you still got people that are divined by their
business card. I don't. I don't carry a business card because I defined a business card. It's a difference, you know.
So let me tell you my top five.
Then I got two more questions for you, Okay, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, Lebron Magic in that order.
That's my top five.
Okay, I went by positions though, when the league tried to box you not top five a team that doesn't, I don't do the top five thing.
When the league tried to box you out, How difficult was that because at one time they tried to change the rich Paul had to go to school, and this, that, and the other. When they tried to box you out, break that down.
A couple of things happened. So when I first got in the business, the first thing there was an article written on me that tried to basically stuck my growth or or stop me from being put in position to even represent players. That was done strategically coming from a place that I once was, and they tried to do that. You know, a couple of people did. That was one thing that many people skip over and don't even know about. And so I had to go through this whole thing.
The nc DOUBLEA investigating me all that found nothing but the young man lost his eligibility, which was bad. It really cost him. But that came from somebody strategically targeting me to try to do that number one. And at the time when the article was written, it was like, damn, you got them to write this article about me that you know not true, and so that was that really
pissed me off. And then from there the rule from the nc double A about that became the Rich Paul rule that said agents had to have a college degree to be able to represent people that are testing the water, meaning that I'm not sure if I'm a pro or not and I want to keep my eligibility. Well, I don't really represent guys that's testing the water anyway, So
I really wasn't focused on that. At the same time, when I thought about it a little bit more, I'm like, damn, this is not even about me per se, because I'm already over the heill in terms of I made on another side, it's nothing that could really do to me. This is about people come behind me, right, and so they're trying to stop that. And that's when I wrote the opt head and I think it took six days from to take it down or whatever. It was like, they totally removed it because that was BS and it.
Was clear and blatant.
They know that, Yeah, it was blatant.
Yeah, Now now I know books are always you know, great first steps, first steps in the journey of healing. So what are you doing to unpack some of the trauma that you experienced throughout your life?
Writing this book was very therapeutic for me. Man. I needed that. I needed that because you know, as a kid, I bottled so much and I didn't know anything about talking to a therapist back then. You know, the therapist was like guy with a fifth of rolls in his hand, he drunk, you know. But today I'm in a much different space. And that's why I felt there was you know,
kind of like four things motivation the book. I think it was important to give people perspective and perception, and then to allow people to walk with you through your journey and these experiences because we have shared experiences despite race, gender, whatever the case may be, background, wherever you came from, there's a chapter in this book that you share an experience with me in some shape form of fast for sure, and for some people, most chapters in this books you're
gonna share experience and experience with me. So the timing of it just felt right. And anything I do is gutting heart, man, like you know, and just like I was texting me and Lebron was texting the other day and I was like man, I really want to get the artists to do like a self destruction or all in the same game type of song because it's just what's happening today with our youth, just just so much
careless killing. And you know, I lost my my little cousin the other day, was seventeen years old last Thursday, was found, you know, shot in the drive by, like seventeen years old. And I buried his father in two thousand and nine. So I'm talking to my uncles, my mother's brother, and you know I can I can hear his hurt. And my uncle Kevin, like is my mother's second youngest brother, great guy hunt, you know, big farm down in Mississippi, do his thing, and this is his grandson.
But he lost so now he lost his son and his grandson. And I'm connected to like I'm not bro. I don't know how many funerals I paid for this year, just yearly, I don't know how many you know times I send money to people books and I've been doing that for twenty years. So I'm still connected as it pertains to just people because I understand it.
You know, it means nothing's changing.
You know, it means nothing change, nothing's changing man. And so I just think, like I don't knock the music in terms of sharing your story, but but it's just to a point to where we need. We need a different message. And that's not to not be cool and not to be relatable and all that. I know the relatability thing, but it's also relatable to talk to tell somebody what you're doing, why you're doing it, and why not to do it as well, because that's what we
grew up on. You know what I'm saying, like change is cool to cop but more important, as lawyer fees, That's how it is now, That's how it always be. I never changed. It's always me, you know, Like I can't expect people to be Jay and I don't and I but at the same time there's a balance, right and so but we need that we need because it's just it's just crazy. That's what's going on, you know right now. It's not even about no money. You know this, And there's there's a there's a chapter in the book.
Remember I talked about the kid who said, well, that's why your mom smoke crack and.
You learned how you learned when you was a good you used to snap crazy and then when they do that, you would get frozen.
You learn how to navigate through that.
Right, And today it's hard for kids to do that because social media is observer's paradox. And so if me and you got into that school and we was in the bathroom, but Envy was the only one that's seen us, you know, it's like, well, I want to know you say you want, well, m be the only one that's seen us. Maybe he want to comment on it, Maybe he don't.
I think would have been teasing Envy. I just feel like that. I feel like I feel.
Like he's got Yeah, you gotta you gotta relax on v with the last kids, Relax than rich.
You know.
I support Envy back in the day when they did a lot for us in the culture, like you got to relax. But what I will say is just like, but today, anything you do, if a kid don't get a like, they take the picture down or enough likes, you know, and then now it's about comments that people are making and it's calls in this retaliation and you're losing the kid prior to so I look at it. I'm saying like you got to be able to get there, like these kids not even allowing themselves to get there
to where. You know, we all did crazy stuff when you're young, but like who you are today, how you perceive life and you know, your family and different things like that, your job. When you look back on some of the things you did when you was young, like and that was stupid. That was really stupid, you know, and so but they're not even getting a chance to look back. They want to do it. They want to It's a cloud thing, and it's and it's a it's
just a weird place right now. Rich got to go by it, lat question whatever, east side of Cleveland, Yeah, Mton, Yeah, Saint Clair, you know, fifth of Edmonton is like the to the exact Google map boom origin. But Glynn Community in Saint Claire's where where I'm from.
How does the del fare environments?
I took her there?
Really hell yeah?
What yeah?
What did she say?
By the way, it's funny hundred percent one hundred percent. And by the way, you know, we're pulling up and I got security right in the Cleveland police everybody. So I'm pulling up to houses and you know what it looks like when we when we're pulling up, you know, all black trucks.
The president, they think the presidents.
Yeah.
So so they're like, man, you know it starts spreading throughout the neighborhood. Like man, like you, bro, you can't. You got to give us a heads up for something pulling up like that. But no, like we went to the hood though, No, for sure, you know, like my family is my family, bro, I don't. I can't. You know in the book, when you and when you in Cleveland,
all we all we saw was Cleveland. So no matter how far I go in life, I take Cleveland with me because I couldn't be me without Cleveland, and not just Saint Clair, all of Cleveland, you know, up the way, down the way, cross town, like it's it's just.
This book is a love letter of Cleveland.
It raised me, really, it really, it really raised me. And it'd be hard for me to be who I am without the way I grew up. And I really appreciate the guys in the Dice House that that that raised me, you know, all of them, you know, little Mos and Texas and Wings and and you know, like it was my uncle Lance, my uncle Warren.
You know, how did they embracing Adele though? How did the hood embracing Adele when you.
Had her out there.
They loved it, you know. Yeah, they rock with it.
Yeah, that's some legendary rock with it.
Yeah, they look at me. They rock with it because because you know, like and and again that's part to me. It's hard to date me and then I'm not me that like that'll never happen. I'm not changing for for nobody. I had. I had Jake to sending the hoods one one day during the tour. This was like five, and he came out and where am I this guys at? Where this guy's at? Where my where my Saint Clair? Is that?
You know what I'm saying, grew up in Mars.
No, no, no, I understand that you said. You're saying that. I'm just saying in terms of just me being me. But no, they they they love it. They love it for sure. They embrace it. Life is good, Charlotte, man.
Are you as her husband?
Life is very good?
Okay?
I don't you know?
Why are you on in that man's personals?
Ask your question is always in people's personal.
Web, the internets, Like I saying, I don't care, let's asking questions for the Internet.
I know everybody's asking questions for the internet. I'm just saying, you know, life is good.
The book is out today, Lucky Me, and we appreciate you joining us.
Brother, I appreciate you guys. Man. That was just great. I'm happy about the book. I'm happy.
You know.
I'm just in a good space. Man. You know, I never get too highed too little about anything, and I don't really sit in my success, so I'm just just grinding.
Man.
This is a fantastic reed. I think everybody should go out there and get Lucky Me. And it was funny because everybody, remember they was talking about when you were supposed to have a movie about your life. Yeah, and everybody was saying, like, why would Rich Paul have a movie about his life?
You'll let you know why.
You need.
Congrats of y'all too, man, Like you know how long y'all been.
On that thirteen years before fourteen?
Yeah, crazy starting a lot of shit, just a lot of shit started with you, Charlotte Main saying, I agree that lead people alone. I agree you've definitely matured, You've gotten better.
Shit therapist, absolutely. I started going to therapy in twenty sixteen.
And that's when it changed because prior to that you was.
Yeah, he was minister and me and Rich used to argue about stuff like I'm gonna bring no light there, But we used to have some good common station.
Yeah, I missed those conversations. We need to do that. I'm with more often. Absolutely, now I miss those conversations because I like the debates. It's all good.
Absolutely, he needs he needs a light skin therapist.
That's what he needs to stay up the light skin brothers man.
See, I mean you know he.
Was no Brown. Cut it out, stop it all right, cut it out. It's Rich Paul Breakfast. Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club.