How Rich Paul signs Ray Allen and helps James to the top

Without further ado, let's continue with the above text -

In the summer of 2010, the contract of Celtics star Ray Allen expired. At that time, Ray Allen was in a very embarrassing position in the Celtics. He was in a very embarrassing position with Rondo, Bradley and others on the court, and was not valued by general manager Danny Angie off the court. As the core of the three giants winning the championship two years ago, Ray Allen not only did not receive the star treatment of Angie in advance, but every year every offseason, Angie had to take Ray Allen's small card to the free market and see what he could get back.

Under such circumstances, Ray Allen's agent Jim Tanner only negotiated for Ray Allen's contract renewal of 20 million yuan, with a low amount and a long period. It can be said that he did not win in the present and did not have any guarantee for the future. Although Ray Allen was 35 years old at that time, he still contributed 16+3+3 per game last season, and helped the Celtics reach the finals as the third leader, and they fought with the Lakers for seven games before they lost.

Let's not talk about anything else, just talk about three-pointers. They are also the top three-point shooter in the league. Peja's salary was 15 million that year, and in 2008, the three-point champion Jason Richardson was 14.44 million, and former teammate Rashad Lewis will get 20 million next season! It is obvious that the two-year contract of 20 million was not in line with Ray Allen's value at that time. Of course, Ray Allen himself was also dissatisfied with the negotiation result. However, the Celtics were still in the last window of the championship. In order to maintain the stability of the locker room, Ray Allen did not make any public difficulties, but quickly fired Tanner to relieve his chest tightness.

The news that Ray Allen fired his agent soon spread in the circle, but most agents were actually uninterested in Lei Allen and were not very interested in it. There are two reasons. One is that Ray Allen has negotiated a new contract and will not need an agent in player contracts in the next two years, so the agent naturally cannot get some. The other is that Ray Allen was 35 years old at the time, and the value of endorsement was very limited. Unless an overseas small brand was willing to sign the old star at a high price, local big names would not consider Ray Allen at all.

Here we will popularize some knowledge about agents. There are usually two types of contracts for NBA players, salary contracts and endorsement contracts. The salary contract agent usually gets 2%-7%, and the bigger the status, the lower the point. For example, Curry's agent Jeff Austin only gets 2.35% of the salary contract. The Goodwin brothers mentioned above are now Lillard's agent, only gets 3.15%. After all, the contracts of stars are relatively easy to negotiate, while those who are not very famous or have a low starting point generally get more points, such as Shen Jing's agent Bora Sankar, gets 6.25%.

The endorsement contract usually takes 10%-30%. Like a salary contract, the bigger the star, the lower the point.

At this time, Ritchie Paul, who had been studying with Ross for 5 years, was determined to come out and make a breakthrough. His goal was Ray Allen. After he conducted detailed customer research on Ray Allen, he discovered what Ray Allen needs most at this stage - respect.

Ricci Paul did not find Ray Allen directly, but started with the people around Ray Allen. Ray Allen was born in a middle-class family and received a good education since childhood. Therefore, Rich Paul, who was a street vendor, bought a suit and put it on, dressed himself like a keen. He was recognized by Ray Allen's parents and wife before he officially started to contact Ray Allen.

In the negotiations, Ritchie Paul put his attitude very low, restraining the usual wildness and unruly of street vendors, instead of speaking slowly and sincerely speaking, trying to show his greatest respect. With all the conditions agreed, Ray Allen proposed a condition that no one else could accept, that is, in order to concentrate on preparing for the battle and win the championship in the past two years, Ritchie Paul should not find any endorsement contract for himself.

You should know that Ray Allen's salary contract had been negotiated at that time, and the only way for brokers to make money was the endorsement contract. Ray Allen directly blocked this road, which was equivalent to that Rich Paul could not make a dime from Ray Allen for two years!

Faced with such harsh conditions, Ritchie Paul agreed. He probably did not expect that Ray Allen could save his good brother two years later. What he thought about at that time might be to put a perfect end to his first appearance, and that's all.

Ritchie Paul kept his promise, and it was really in the next two years. He didn't find any endorsement for Ray Allen. Ritchie Paul's work became a laughing stock in the industry - not only did he not make a penny, but he also had to pay a membership fee of several thousand yuan (every player signed by an agent, he had to pay membership fees to the agents association). It was simply thankless. Even the business wizard James couldn't understand Ritchie Paul's operation. In the face of media inquiries, he said -

"Paul is still a newcomer, and he still needs a long time to grow up, and everyone should be tolerant of him."

Little did he know that Paul's operation had the greatest benefit to LeBron James.

It was soon 2012. Ricci Paul, who had been studying under the master Leon Ross for seven years, decided to go out alone. At this time, Ricci Paul had a company engaged in the sports industry - LRMR. However, because the NBA added James terms to the new labor agreement the previous year - active players cannot participate in any form of brokerage activities, including being a player's agent or working in a brokerage company.. This clause has resulted in the fact that LRMR (which has active player James in the company) has no chance of obtaining a business license in the brokerage industry. As a result, Ritchie Paul founded a new company - Klutch Sports Group, and successfully obtained a business license in the brokerage industry. His first client was LeBron James.

In the eyes of those people in the NBA office at that time, James was simply cheating. People all over the world knew that Ricky Paul was James's younger brother. The two were as good as wearing a pair of pants. Although everyone was as sharp as a mirror in their hearts - Ricky Paul was James making money, and the most important thing was to control the NBA's white gloves, but because James did not work in the company, he could not find any legal problems. It gave people the feeling that he was stuck in his throat, had a hard time speaking, and it was like eating a fly...

Although James repeatedly stated in public that Klutch Sports founded by Ricky Paul Group has nothing to do with him, but anyone with a brain knows that even punctuation cannot believe this sentence, because what James said and what he actually did happened the opposite. As soon as Paul's new company opened, James immediately kicked out Leon Ross and turned to the army of his good brothers.

In order to try to seize James's handle, the NBA office also started by investigating the start-up capital of Ritchie Paul to create a new company, and wanted to find out the connection between James and Klutch Sports Group. But how smart James is, how could someone make you catch the handle? This investigation ended in failure and was left unresolved.

At this time, James has been changing from the Cavaliers to the Heat for two years. Last season, the 2011-2012 season, the Heat defeated the Thunder in the finals and won the coveted championship, but the outside world's expectations for the Big Three are not just a ring. As James said when he joined the Heat -

"What I want to bring to Miami is not one or two rings, but a dynasty!"

The end of the season Afterwards, the Miami Heat began to sign in full swing, and the goal of signing was very clear, which was a three-point shooter. After so many years of verification, it was found that the type of character that best plays the powerful power of the James system was a three-point shooter. James could use his powerful inside assault ability to pull out high-quality three-point space for the outside shooter. Last year, the three-point shooters around James were Sean Bathir, Mario Chamos, James Jones, Mike Miller and others, all performed very well.

Coincidentally, under the company of his good brother Ritchie Paul, there is a top historical shooting - Ray Allen. And even more coincidental, Ray Allen's contract expired in 2012.

At that time, Ray Allen had completely become a role player in the Celtics and had no tactical position to hold the ball. However, as a role player, Ray Allen still achieved the top level with a precise three-pointer, averaging 14+3+3 per game, and in 34 minutes of playing time, he threw 2.3 per game with a three-point shooting percentage of more than 45%. In terms of goals per game, he ranked third in the league, second only to Ryan Anderson and Steve Novak.

Although Ray Allen suffered humiliation in the Celtics in the past two years, his first choice was to stay with the Celtics. He proposed a four-year renewal price of 32 million yuan to Angie. This price is not high considering Ray Allen's ability and contributions to the team over the years. For example, Ryan Anderson, who had just renewed the contract at that time, had 35 million yuan in four years, but Angie was only willing to give 12 million yuan in two years, and stated that there was no room for bargaining. If you want to stay, sign and leave if you don't want to stay.

At this point, Ray Allen's last glimmer of hope for staying with the Celtics was completely shattered.

There is no doubt that Allen Ray is an important puzzle that many championship-winning teams dream of. Strong teams such as the Spurs, Thunder, and Lakers are very interested in Allen Ray, but the embarrassing thing is that the salary space of these teams is basically very tight. The biggest contract that can be obtained is just the Spurs’ annual salary of 4.5 million. This is also the main reason why Anji is willing to give Allen Ray 6 million - otherwise you can go to a weak team and get a high salary, but don’t think about the championship.

In the battle for Ray Allen, the Heat, which is determined to defend the title, naturally participated, but the problem is that because the three giants occupy a large amount of salary space, the Heat can only provide Ray Allen with a salary of about 3 million yuan. This amount is even half of Anji's, which is because the Heat is short of money. Therefore, when the news broke out, the Heat was interested in Ray Allen, Anji smiled slightly and didn't take it seriously.

At this moment, Ritchie Paul took action. On the one hand, he kept depicting Ray Allen the wonderful prospects for the Heat to win the championship, as well as his important position in James's size, as well as the age of the Heat's Big Three, and the ability to continue to win the championship. On the other hand, he used emotional cards and worked as a two-pronged approach. Considering that Paul did not make a dime from himself for two years, Ray Allen finally announced that he had signed the Heat for 9.5 million in three years. The news shocked the world and even caused the anger of the old guys of the Celtics. This is a later story, so I won't mention it here.

On June 19, 2013, in the NBA Finals G6, Ray Allen contributed a god-level scene, and a hit from the three-point line blocked the game into overtime. The importance of this three-pointer is no exaggeration to say that even if Ray Allen scored this three-pointer without playing all season, the Heat would make a big profit.

And the most important thing about this three-pointer is that it completely saved James' career. I posted an article on March 9, 2025 - "What history did Ray Allen's three-pointer rewrite in the 2013 Finals? Duncan and James' two-level reversal". Those who are interested can go to the homepage to take a look, and I won't go into the details here.

It can be said that James' second championship has a great relationship with Ritchie Paul's operation of Ray Allen. If Ray Allen had not been Ray Allen in the finals that year, the history of the NBA might have been rewritten..

Starting this year, Ritchie Paul began to gradually get rid of the label of James's small follower. His company has signed more and more stars and the impact is getting bigger and bigger. Among them, several players have won a fat contract that exceeds his value. However, all this did not bring honor to Ritchie Paul. Instead, he became the biggest villain behind the NBA. Pelicans vice president David Griffin even threatened to join forces with the general managers of other teams to ban Ritchie Paul and his company. As long as he signed Ritchie Paul's agency, he would not be allowed to play in his own team!

What are the twists and turns and stories in this? Everything is in the next article. I will send you eight o'clock in the morning every day. Fireworks will continue to output high-quality original content to everyone. I feel that Fireworks is well written, and I hope to get a small praise for encouragement. The recognition of the top brother on the list is the driving force for Fireworks Xiaojun to update every day! Fireworks, I’m here to thank you for your brothers on the list!