Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers Are at Full Strength Vs. San Antonio, Plus Rich Paul Speaks Candidtly about LeBron, Lakers

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

Wednesday night's game against the Spurs at Crypto.com isn't just big because it's a Cup quarterfinal, and a victory means more $ for players and coaches with a chance for even bigger checks. It's also because San Antonio represents a major challenge for the Lakers, and an opportunity to send a message against a high level Western Conference team. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama won't be in uniform, as he's not quite ready to return to action following a calf strain. But two other exciting young players, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, have returned from injury. So this game matters in the standings, and in the perceived pecking order out West. Meanwhile, Rich Paul and Max Kellerman introduced their new podcast with an interview featuring... Rich Paul. And it was an interesting one, for sure. Paul spoke candidly about the Lakers and how they're run, what he thinks of their title chances, and what changes they might make in the long and short term. Did he also do some major messaging at the Lakers on behalf of his most famous client?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky  SEGMENT 1: The Spurs are in town... but Wemby isn't active.  SEGMENT 2: Rich Paul speaks! Was he messaging? To whom?  SEGMENT 3: An interesting moment for the NBA.  Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTurn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint.Shop Mint Unlimited Plans at http://MINTMOBILE.com/LOCKEDONNBA.Disclaimer: Limited time offer. Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-mo., $90 for 6-mo., or $180 for 12-mo. plan required($15/mo. equivalent). Taxes & feesInitial plan term only.  Greater Than 35GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.QuoMake this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.Quo.com/lockedonnba.Quo — no missed calls, no missed customers.ZocdocStop putting off your doctor’s appointments and get the care you need.Go to htps://Zocdoc.com/lockedonnba to find and instantly book a top-rated doctortoday.RobinhoodYou expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today at robinhood.com/yourmoney. Your money. Your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA and NFL seasons are here, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Lockdown Lakers for Wednesday. Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kamenetzky. Rich Paul is talking. Is he again sending messages to the Lakers? We'll tell you next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network. Your team every day.

Thanks to everybody for making Locked on Lakers. First listen to every day, Monday through Friday, matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always going to be free for you. Never behind paywall, Andy. because we don't do that here at the number one sports podcast network in this or any other known universe, whether you get your locked on Lakers here on the Apple, on the iTunes, if you're listening to the audio product, maybe through Spotify, maybe you were one of the 37,000 plus subscribers to the YouTube channel.

We've locked on Lakers YouTube channel. No matter how you do it, we certainly appreciate you doing it. I'm going to get you ready for Wednesday night's big cup game, the cup quarter final. against the Spurs visiting. No Wembe, but Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper are both back for the Spurs. So they are more healthy than they've been and a formidable team with just those guys, even without Wendy. So we'll get you ready for that.

Some stuff from practice on Tuesday. Andy was there. But the big news in Lakerland was certainly a long, long conversation between. Max Kellerman and Rich Paul, who many of you know as LeBron's agent, super agent at Clutch Sports. It was the inaugural episode of the Game Over podcast, the game over show at this point. It's going to be on Netflix as well as Spotify. The debut episode, Rich Paul and Max Kellerman speaking at length for this tons of interesting stuff coming out of it.

But as always, Andy, whenever Rich Paul speaks and whenever Rich Paul talks about anything related to the Lakers and LeBron, it's going to be picked over to see why exactly he's doing this and

what's he saying? Yeah, and the validity of the things that he says. First of all, shout out to Max Callerman, who Brian and I worked with at 710 ESPN in L.A. for a few years, really enjoyed working with him. So it's awesome to see him have a vehicle like this. Max is great at this sort of thing. And he's a really good guy on top of it. So that's really cool. Before we get into everything that we

have time to get into over the course of this show for this discussion between Rich Paul and Max Kellerman, I would highly encourage people to listen to the entire interview. In part, because I think it is a very interesting and at times, I think, thoughtful, nuanced conversation that the overarching conversation about it, a lot of that nuance and thoughtfulness will inevitably get lost. Hopefully, Brian and I are not guilty parties in it becoming lost. We're going to do our best to make sure that doesn't happen. I would definitely encourage people to check out the whole thing, because I think there's a lot of it that you really need to hear if you really want to get really the fullest and most informed opinion of it.

Some of the, I guess, easiest. Where do you want, actually, where do you want to start with this? Because there are a lot of different. Like, we could go for the headlining stuff. We could go for the stuff that both of us. Here's what I'm more interesting, but might not be the most obvious headlines. Here's what I want to talk about because I want to go through kind of the obvious headlines, but not so much to break down whether or not I agree with Rich Paul

over his basketball analysis, whether or not I agree with, you know, whether, you know, is he sending signals to Lakers management? Is he doing what's going on here? All that stuff. Because for me, my big takeaway here is actually not specifically about anything really. that Rich Paul is saying, I actually think the context when you start to see how, you know, what they're talking about, the environment in which they're talking sends a very different signal about what's happening and a kind of a new signal, very reflective of where LeBron and Rich Paul are. But I'll get to, I'll sort of build that. The headlining stuff, the Lakers aren't good enough to win a title. I think that's the one that jumped out to a lot of Lakers fans on social

media on Wednesday or sorry, on Tuesday. And, you know, Rich Paul saying the Lakers, as constructed, wouldn't make them a championship favorite. I think everybody means when you say championship favorite good enough to make a conference final. That's how he put it because nobody is getting past the thunder in the championship favorite rankings right now. It's just, Are you good enough to get the opportunity to be beaten by the Thunder in the Western Conference final? And Rich Paul said, no, this group is not. And I think that was the lead headline and the one that stirred up the most traditional Rich Paul's trying to get the Lakers to do stuff kind of reaction.

Yeah, and the reasons, by the way, that he cited for thinking that the Lakers, he said couldn't reach the Western Conference finals, but definitely would not end up getting out of the West, included athleticism, a lack of length, a lack of speed, shooting. These, by the way, are all things that you and I have talked about. And frankly, most people who cover this team or cover the NBA have talked about. And by the way, we say this both while thinking the Lakers are a legit team. We have said many times we don't think the 17 and 6 start is an illusion.

We think they are a legitimate. good team. They will have, I think, as good of a puncher's chance as anybody to try to upset the thunder in terms of the teams that you would lump in, probably Denver, Houston, maybe San Antonio, maybe the wolves. Like as far as the teams that would have the punchers chance against Oklahoma, the problem is Oklahoma City, they throw really, really good punches themselves. And you need to have more than a puncher's chance if you want to believe in them. So what Rich Paul said... Cross that bridge when you get there, basically.

Of course. And look, things may change over the course of this season. There could be a trade or two may. Like all these different things can happen. But while it is very unusual for Rich Paul or, frankly, any agent to do this type of sit down and get into this type of detail about a team as high-profile. as the Lakers that has the most high profile athlete in North American sports.

Like this is unusual. And some would question how good of an idea it is. What he's actually saying isn't really that much different than when anybody else is said. It is not. And essentially the moral of the story there is that the Lakers are a team that is not. really well built for the playoffs.

He said they're going to, you know, that they can run up a good record that, but they're going to run into the same problems that they ran into before against long athletic teams and things like that. They are a team that is not a fraud, but they are not built as well for the postseason because teams are going to be able to get at them the same way that Minnesota got at them, essentially. And I think, you know, I think they're better than they were last year.

I don't know if I entirely agree with the analysis here. I do think that I entirely agree with the idea that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. You can download the GameTime app, create account, use code locked an NBA for $20 off your first purchase. If they spent a lot of time on that, I totally would have agreed with Rich and Mac on this issue. The question to me becomes, you know, is this meant to be another one of these, you know, passive, aggressive, or, just aggressive, aggressive ways to try to get the Lakers, shake him up, got to make, you know, take advantage of LeBron, make a big move, whatever it might be. And I'm going to be honest with you.

And we'll talk about this more in this next segment. I don't think so. A, he's said this already. You know, this is not new. This is something that Rich Paul has basically said every year that the Lakers and LeBronovina where they weren't clearly a title favorite that like, hey, they've got some work to do.

Or they've message it through reporters stuff like that. It's unusual for the words to be coming directly from Rich Paul's mouth. The sentiment is not unusual. In the next segment I'll get to that. But the you know, he's not

they've made it pretty clear. There's no expectation of LeBron James going anywhere this season. They're not, there's no expectation that LeBron James can ask As Rich Paul said, where would he go? Yep. He's not going anywhere. And so they kind of, you don't, you know, you don't, you know, make the shot across the bow by essentially disarming, which is basically what, what you're doing there.

If you say where is he going to go, then you're not demanding anything. And that's just there's, you know, so I think that part of it, is over kind of being is overwrought and to me that actually gets to what I find significant about this interview. You mentioned, you know, it's unusual for Rich Paul to be giving it. Well, the context is really unusual too. We'll get to it next. Lockdowne Lakers is brought to you by Mitt Mobile. There is no reason to let big wireless drain your wallet, especially during the holidays when you're already spending a Bleep a ton of money. Right now, Mint Mobile is running their best deal of the year. All of their

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I do want to let people know about the Everydayer Club, Andy, before we get back into this LeBron, Rich Paul, Max Kellerman thing, we do, again, appreciate you making Lockdown-Makers' first listen to every day and for helping make the Locked-on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network, anywhere that we've ever found. You already live the Lakers every day, and now you can take it up a level and go ad free.

So if you join the Everyday Air Club, you get no interruptions, member-only Discord access, and more. It's just $5 a month, $50 a year. Again, join the Everyday Air Club, $5 a month, or $50 a year. And you can check out the show notes, to learn more, all of that stuff.

It's a great way to get rid of some of those commercials that some people, you know, if you judge by our comment section, they don't like it. So we'll keep reminding you of it. We'll tell you how to get to the everyday air club, all that good stuff. But, you know, think about it. Give it a shot. I think this interview to me, because I thought about it initially, my initial reaction was, why is he doing this?

Who does it help? You know, why does this help LeBron in any way to have Rich Paul talking like this at a time when it's pretty clear, like leverage is not something that LeBron really has anymore. Nope. And all of this does is kind of drive that point home. Like, who do they think they're fooling anymore? And it sort of occurred to me, they don't think they're fooling anyone. This, we are in, this is my reading. And this doesn't mean that LeBron doesn't like the attention and that there isn't going to be some message sending and all that kind of stuff.

But where that used to be kind of the primary purpose of these things, now I think it's secondary. We are so used, Andy, to the idea of every time Rich Paul speaks that it is a threat that this is like, you know, I don't think we're there anymore. This was Rich Paul on his own show with Max Kellerman. This was not him as a guest on the Max Kellerman show. This was him and Rich Paul. And like, this is Rich Paul's show. And to me, the whole presentation, speaking candidly about the Lakers, speaking candidly about LeBron, about other players, about Miami's winning culture,

what makes a championship franchise, not just a winning team. Those are some of the most interesting parts of this, by the way. when he talked about why he thinks the Lakers are a, they're an organization with championships, but they are not a championship organization. And his distinction, in case we don't have time to get in depth with it, was yes,

the Lakers obviously have a history of championships, and it's an incredible history. And it's one that the organization is rightly very proud of. But as far as building a culture, like a championship culture that is created through details and infrastructure and smart planning, he does not think that the Lakers are really built like that, which by the way is something you and I have said for basically the entirety of the time we've covered this organization.

Well, I mean, I think you can make an argument. There's certainly at one time they absolutely were a championship organization in process, in everything. But, you know, you go back to the, you know, certainly the Showtime era, you go back to the three-peat era. You know, they, I think you could even make an argument, you know, certainly post Kobe POW championship years. Yes. Yes.

I would certainly agree with that assessment. And that only gets to it. Like, Rich Paul is, I don't, he's not moving on from LeBron. LeBron is always going to be a huge client. And while he's playing a significant portion of the portfolio, he's going to be. he's going to get a lot of attention on it. But the end is near. And LeBron knows the end is pretty close.

And like there's going to be there. He may be in L.A. the next year. He may retire. He may want to go somewhere else. But this isn't where he goes is not going to be a, you know, five-year leverage play. It's going to be a year or two or something like that. Rich Paul has a portfolio and has a business and an agency. that is blown up to proportions well beyond LeBron

and now is speaking two and four other players, other potential clients, his other clients and things. And I see this interview that he's doing. I don't think this interview was about LeBron. I don't think this interview was intended to send signals to the Lakers or to really, you know, Threaten Lakers are shot across. Let me finish.

You can go. I think this is a Rich Paul thing. I think this is something that he wants to do. I think this is how people operate now where they, you know, your agent or your manager or your someone, your coach, your play or whatever, they get out. They have a podcast. They have a platform. They deliver things straight from their mouths often as opposed to.

It's unusual for an agent. This is highly unusual. Let's not pretend this is normal. This is highly unusual. We see players now doing it. We see coaches now doing it. We see, you know, the, the ecosystem of sort of who speaks and how and all these other things is just extremely different than it used to be. Clutch is involved in all kinds of things that go beyond sports and entertainment products and things like that.

Like these, it's a diverse amount of stuff going on. And I just, there is a separation when I see this stuff between, you know, you at, because we were texting back and forth, he asked a question, do you think LeBron, like, likes this or doesn't? I don't think LeBron necessarily, I don't want to say he doesn't care. But Rich Paul's doing this, I think, not at the behest of LeBron. And so I think this is a, I think he's doing this. He's not going to say anything that's going to make LeBron feel. furious at him, but I don't think the purpose of this or the purpose of this interview or the stuff he said about the Lakers was specifically to position or angle on behalf of LeBron.

I think this was about Rich Paul and Clutch going forward. And LeBron isn't really them going forward. LeBron is current and more past. Look, do I think that the point? of this was like that do I think that rich Paul sat down with max Kellerman with the express first purpose of trying to send messages to the lakers no I mean the the first purpose of this thing for all being honest was clicks he's starting a podcast like he wants to get people listening he knows talking about the

lakers and talking about lebron is a great way to get people listening and some of things that he's saying about the Lakers, if they are willing to take it at face value beyond whatever effects of messaging, there are things they actually could learn from what he says, like as we've talked about. There are elements of this that are actually true and no different than what you and I have been saying covering this organization for years. That being said, and we can talk about this next, I think the question, of how much LeBron likes or doesn't like this, we're not going to know really until LeBron is asked about this.

No question. But if you are asking me whether or not I think this doesn't affect LeBron at all or potentially create talking points for others to be asked about, we'll get into Austin Reeves. I would be surprised. That's not what I said, but that's good. But this is all part and parcel, though, of it, though. Like this is the effect of it. Like the idea that this does, the idea that there are no ripple effects from this

if Rich Paul is not looking first and foremost to angle and message and try to create a power play against the Lakers, like that there aren't potential ramifications from it is at minimum, potentially wishful thinking, if not just flat out naive. like this may create uncomfortable. I don't think Austin, we'll get into it. I doubt Austin. I will say it could create uncomfortable conversations, I guess for Austin,

who might be, is going to be asked about, Rich Paul says you should be a sixth man on a championship team. I don't think it creates uncomfortable situations for LeBron. Well, those could be different things. I mean, it could have, we'll talk about it,

but it could be if Austin's like, what the hell, LeBron? Like, I don't need this right now. I don't need your agent talking about how I in a career year should be coming off the bench. That's really none of his business. Like, I don't hear any other agent across the league talking about what, you know, teammates on. We'll talk about that because I have thoughts about that too.

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Terms apply. Again, download the app, make an account, use the code, locked on NBA for $20 bucks off, swipe, tap, ticket, go game time. Real quick, we should make sure people know. Marcus Smart is slated to play against the Spurs. On Wednesday, he said during Tuesday's practice that unless he wakes up, he was a full participant in practice, basically unless he wakes up, feeling like crap he's going to play in this game that's his plan right now and um you know for the

time being his i think we've talked about this before his minutes are probably going to be monitored to some degree although i asked him about this and in so many words he said if they need me to play more i'm going to play more if they need me to play less i'm going to play less that's kind of what everybody is trying to do they're going to try real hard not they need to play more right but i asked him if there had been like a discussion about this specifically and he said no but he understands that he's had some injuries heading into the season. He's had injuries the last couple of years. And if he's playing really well and there's a game where they need him to play 30 to 40 minutes,

he's going to play it. If there's a game where they don't, he won't. And that's based on. I think everybody understands what the challenge is here. Everybody has the same goal. Right. Getting back to the conversation about Rich Paul in this interview, just to set the context, Rich Paul,

Max Kellerman brought up the idea of Austin Reeves, like on a contending team, as Max put it, would be a killer six-man, like properly slotted or ideally slotted. He'd play the Mono-Genobly role on a team like this person. Yeah, they actually cited Mono Genoble. Rich Paul did say that Austin should be paid like a starter, and, you know, that he, want to make it clear,

this did not sound like him taking shots at Austin, as a player or presenting him as overrated, anything like that, so it's not misconstrued. But he was, I mean, just again, it was part of the championship culture conversation where you say in championship organizations, players with Hall of Fame skill like Mano Genoblee would agree to come off the bench

because sort of A, the organization took care of them, but also the culture helped breed that kind of of selflessness. And they also had so many flipping good players that somebody had to do something. And, you know, Genoblee finished games and all that kind of stuff. But he was a guy who went from starting

to coming off the bench. And this was something that, like I said, I don't think Rich Paul presented with disrespect towards Austin. But I guarantee it is something that Austin didn't like. I guarantee his. agent, Aaron Riley, did not appreciate this at all. And I would imagine there would be a part of

Austin or Team Reeves thinking, dude, this is outside your lane. Like don't, don't be slating my client, particularly in a contract year when he's having an all-star caliber season, maybe even all-NBA season. This is frankly none of your business. Like you are perhaps now lurching into a lane where you are messing with my guy's money. Even if you're suggesting that he get paid like a starter, it's going to be difficult to square the circle of a six-man making $35 to $40 million a year, which right now is the projection for Austin. I also think getting higher.

If I'm LeBron, I don't mean this as a slam on LeBron, but it's very clear. LeBron enjoys being the center of discussions. I don't think anybody would deny this. He's very comfortable in that spotlight. He's very good at doing things that are interesting in that spotlight. And quite frankly, he's one of the greatest athletes in any sport ever. He's been worth watching.

But if I'm LeBron, I don't know if I really like my agent, getting into these type of details about my team, about my place within an organization, how my team should or should not handle a star client like, I don't know me, particularly on the heels of me playing the first really great game since coming back from the sciatica that came on the heels of two games that were controversial for different reasons, the Phoenix game where he stayed in there to get those 10 points transparently, also took some flack for a lot of yucking it up with the guys on the sun's bench, which Max Kellerman said he fought. pissed off J.J. Reddick. And while Rich Paul said he did not see that game, he did not refute it either. And then, you know, the game where he struggled from the field made the game winning pass to Rui and all those other stuff. Like LeBron just played the best game that he's had since coming back.

I would not want the conversation to all of a sudden even appear like what is LeBron's agent angling for on his behalf. I just, I don't see how that really, this may not hurt LeBron, but that's, how it helps him either. But the couple things, that's kind of my point,

is that what Rich Paul is doing is in a lot of ways separated and not about LeBron. It's about the larger. You can't disentangle it, though, because you know it's not going to be. Even if you can, you know at large it won't be.

Of course that. I know. But my point is, we're talking about sort of the purpose of these things. And what is Rich Paul doing? Rich Paul is cultivating the image of Rich Paul and clutch that he wants to to cultivate. He has always, I've seen a few people, you know, we're doing this live on the YouTube channel. People are like, with no agent, you pointed out yourself.

No agents. Agents don't do podcasts. Rich Paul's always done things a little bit differently than most of these guys. And he's always, man, he's always been more. public more, right. He's great at his job. He's honestly, he's a great talker. Like I said, and that's your thing.

This conversation. It's really good. He has been more like, you see more of Rich Paul than you see of other NBA agents. If you ask people to name NBA agents, most casual fans probably name Rich Paul and maybe not a lot of other ones. And he has been more forward facing. He has been more, you know, in front of cameras. He's been willing to do more of that stuff. And he's done things differently than other agents have.

And I think that's the whole point. And the idea that LeBron may not love this, to me, is what sort of set is why this felt like a significant thing for me. As I really started to think about what might be going on here and where we are in kind of NBA history and Lakers history and how the Lakers operate and all these other things. that this is kind of, you know, the beginning of sort of a pivot point. And, you know, because we've talked about all this stuff, all this stuff like the leveragey things and this and that, it's all in the rearview mirror. Oh, absolutely. The Lakers, you know, the minute LeBron opted in, he lost every last shred of leverage that he possibly had with this organization. And so what I think is, I think Rich Paul is not pretending.

that LeBron, the universe of LeBron, can move mountains like it used to, that they're going to force teams to do things that they couldn't do before or were reluctant to do in the interests of that particular client. And so this says to me that there is no arms race here, or arms with the Lakers and LeBron,

that there isn't this sort of shot across the bow and all these other things. As for the Austin stuff, I think, first of all, what Rich Paul said today, or, you know, in that in this episode, is going to have zero bearing on how much Austin makes. Austin knows that. I don't think he's going to. I personally don't think he'll care.

His agent probably didn't love it. That part I agree with. But like, it's also going to have zero impact on the market. I don't, I'm not saying it's going to influence Austin's perception on the league. Could it create questions that people have to answer, you know, is DeAndre Aiton going to have to answer a question about, you know, being in the dunker spot instead of being in the picking. No, that's way too nuanced. Nobody's going to pay attention to that part of it.

Right. It was interesting. It was very interesting. You know, Austin's going to get potentially asked about, hey, what do you think about the idea of being a six-man on a championship team? And he'll have an answer for it.

And in a week and a half, people have forgotten this interview even happened, let alone. So I just don't see it as a big deal with, is good for the Lakers. I think this era of worrying about LeBron, if it wasn't clear before, this era of worrying about LeBron,

being on pins and needles around everything LeBron and Rich Paul do, of reacting to everything that is said, if it wasn't clear before that this era is over, it should be clear to people now. Because I don't think, This was Rich Paul doing his thing separate from LeBron. LeBron certainly could have shut it down, I guess,

if he thought it was really that big a deal or that destructive. And I don't think he cares. LeBron doesn't care. Look, he may not, again, he may not care. We are obviously entitled to opinions that can be somewhat along LeBron's, different than LeBron's, whatever. I have no idea how much he actually cares. I have no idea.

Sure. how much he was in the, you know, I'm sure he was in the loop about this. But at the same time, I mean, Rich Paul could have told Max heading into this, I don't want to get into deep details about LeBron and the Lakers because I know what that's going to do. And it may overshadow, you know, the entire podcast itself or it may feel like cheap clicks, cheap, like they went for the lowest hanging fruit. I don't mean that as a insane. But I will say, but the answer is the lowest.

hanging fruit that they talked about were dealt with in a much more elevated way. Absolutely. Than low hanging fruit. Again, I cannot emphasize enough. People should listen to this conversation. It's a good conversation. Both Max Kellerman and Rich Paul are really smart guys. It's a good conversation.

But they know that a lot of the nuance is going to get lost in the way this thing gets discussed. Again, we hope we are not part of that problem. But they, they know and Rich Paul knows. I mean, there's been times where Rich Paul has to care enough to not do it, because if you're going to do that show, if you're going to even consider doing a show like that, if you're going to host a show like that, if you're going to, you have to do it with the idea that you can't have topics that big and that obvious. If you're going to talk about sports and talk about the NBA and talk about the stuff, you can't pull huge, he's going to have to talk about his clients, he's going to have to talk about teams he deals with it. Otherwise, you can't do the show.

And if it was that problematic to at least LeBron, then I look, I think you can make a separate argument that I don't really know if it's in, I'd be very curious to know, and maybe this will come out more over time, how Rich Paul clients or prospective Rich Paul clients feel about their agent or prospective agent. I'd be more interested to I'd be I'm less interested in that and more interested to know about how people like Jeannie and Rob react to being called not a championship organization. Yeah absolutely that's the type of thing like you know it's speaking to you know because I actually think his clients clutch clients I think probably if I'm guessing probably are on board with this sort of stuff they might be I don't know but I mean I look I look at

We won't do probably do it as much for Thursday's show because there's a game and a pretty important one at that that we want to break down between the Lakers and Spurs. But I do want to pick back up because it is a great topic. This idea of are the Lakers or championship organization as currently constructed. And is this something Mark Walter can fix? We will pick up this conversation later in the week. But obviously for tomorrow, we'll have. all of the analysis from a very big game. Spurs, Lakers, NBA Cup, quarterfinals.

We'll see everyone tomorrow.