The Los Angeles Lakers worked with Klutch Sports because it helped bring LeBron James to the purple and gold, and Max Kellerman says that was the whole point. Speaking on the Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul podcast, Kellerman admitted he supported the Lakers leaning into that relationship from the start because it gave them a real shot at a title. And looking back, it is hard to argue with the result.
The KCP contract that started it all
Kellerman took it back to the 2017-2018 NBA season, when the Lakers signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a one-year, $18 million deal. At the time, it raised eyebrows. KCP had the same agent as LeBron, and the Lakers were clearly laying groundwork for something bigger.
At the time, Kellerman was on a radio show. He told Rich Paul that he remembered what he would say on the air back then: “Give Klutch whatever they want, they are going to wind up sending LeBron here. Like, what are you doing? It’s an inside job.”
That mindset came from where the franchise actually was at the time. The Lakers were not close. They were not one move away. They were not even in the conversation. LeBron changed that overnight. Kellerman explained that the “Lakers who were not going to sniff a championship…got a championship out of Lebron.”
Well, he was right. Suddenly, the Lakers went from rebuilding to relevant, and before long, they were champions. The connection between the Lakers and Klutch became impossible to ignore during the 2020 title run.
LeBron and Anthony Davis were leading the way, and the roster also included several other Klutch clients. KCP played a huge role, while JR Smith, Dion Waiters, and Talen Horton-Tucker filled in key spots. Over the next few years, even more Klutch-represented players passed through the locker room.
That overlap has always made people uncomfortable, but Rich Paul has pushed back on the idea that anything shady was happening. From his point of view, it is all about fit. Players want places where they can win. Teams want players who make sense. Sometimes those two things line up through the same agency.
Even the KCP deal looks different with time. He was not just a Klutch client. He was a reliable three-and-D wing, exactly the type of player who fits next to LeBron. The agent connection may have helped open the door, but the basketball logic was real.
The irony of all this is that the Lakers now desperately need the exact type of player who once made their Klutch bet pay off. A steady three-and-D wing like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope would solve more problems than they could admit.