Since LeBron James and his friend Rich Paul founded Klutch Sports agency in 2012, it became one of the most influential agencies in the NBA by signing some of the biggest names in the league.
According to NBA legend Charles Barkley, the group now has too much power and dictating what the teams should do. The most recent example that the former NBA MVP pointed at was Ben Simmons (Klutch Sports client) cutting ties with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Another example brought by Barkley was Anthony Davis (another Klutch Sports client) trade from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Los Angeles Lakers when other teams were making better offers.
Barkley thinks that teams need to stand up to this group, saying the Sixers have a chance to show they have ‘stones’ by not doing what Klutch Sports want them to do regarding Simmons.
“You know how that group works. They try to trade their players to where they want to,” Barkley said on The Mike Missanelli Show, per Robert Marvi of Lakers Daily. “They do it the way they want to. Anthony Davis – they had better deals from Boston for Anthony Davis, and I think maybe even New York, and they’re like, ‘No, he’s gonna go to L.A. and play with LeBron. He’s not gonna play.’ They just bully the league. At some point, a team or the league got to stand up to, ‘Wait a minute. I paid your guy. You can’t bully me to trade him and me taking some trash back.’ So I’m hoping somebody in the Sixers organization got some stones.”
Last season, Klutch Sports had six of its players on the Lakers roster, namely James, Davis, Talen Horton-Tucker, Ben McLemore, Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
