Rich Paul finds a loophole when Darius Bazley snubs Syracuse for an internship with New Balance
Ask anyone in the media and they all say the same thing. Rich Paul is not just a lap dog for LeBron James. Rich is about his money and he finds inventive, outside the box methods of keeping his clients in positions to succeed.
When Darius Bazley decided to forego playing college ball for Syracuse, Rich Paul came up with a groundbreaking business opportunity for him.
He worked with New Balance to set up a million-dollar paid internship for Bazley to train throughout the year while working for the company. Months prior, ESPN’s The Jump invited Paul on the show to give further explanation.
So to the people following along here, Darius Bazley has a guaranteed minimum of $1 million dollars in the contract that can balloon to $14 million if he meets all of his incentives.
No wonder Darius Bazley chimed in on Twitter when the criteria was made public.
https://twitter.com/BazleyDarius/status/1158922421203808256
But when a blue-chip recruit backs out of the commitment to a major university like Syracuse, people are not going to be happy. Check out the quote from head coach, Jim Boeheim when the decision was made via CBS Sports.
"“I mean, he made a mistake. It doesn’t do any good to talk about it,” he said. “Everybody thinks I’m criticizing him. I’m not. I’m just telling it like it is. He made a mistake. He should own it. He’s just not ready. He’s just not physical. They’re not letting him play in the G League because he’d get killed.”"
Needless to say, LeBron James decided to make his presence felt on Twitter. Then Boeheim answered.
Not me! I’m happy for him! I wish him the best.
— Jim Boeheim (@therealboeheim) October 24, 2018
LeBron James and Chris Paul have encouraged NBA players for years to command as much money as possible during their respective careers.
It’s one thing to dig in the pockets of the NBA owners who will be pushing back at the next Collective Bargaining negotiations. It’s a whole new ball game setting a trend that will affect the NCAA’s bottom line which others will be certain to follow.