LeBron James Distances Himself From Rich Paul's Trade Hot Take

LeBron James’ childhood friend and agent, Rich Paul, has been freely speaking his mind since launching his Game Over podcast with Max Kellerman, and it’s finally made things uncomfortable in the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room.

Paul’s unfiltered opinions and tough love are plentiful, but now he’s gone too far by suggesting a trade that deals Austin Reaves to the Memphis Grizzlies to improve the Lakers’ roster ahead of the playoffs.

“If I was the Lakers, I would be targeting the Memphis Grizzlies as a trade partner for Jaren Jackson… If you’re building around Luka, you need that anchor,” Paul said. “Jaren doesn’t want to be a part of a rebuild… if you’re able to trade out expirings and trade the last first you got, or you can withhold and give up less, but this comes with a more unemotional attachment because Austin is beloved. There’s a world where you can do what’s best for your team, and what’s best for Austin. Austin deserves to get paid… Memphis would definitely pay Austin. He would become their leading scorer and PG.”

Reaves’ team was obviously upset with James’ camp and the very influential Paul theorizing about a trade, so his rep, Reggie Berry, “approached Paul” during Los Angeles’ game against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.

“The two spoke for more than five minutes, and the topic of conversation was Paul’s public trade scenario regarding Reaves,” sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

James was forced to speak out about it, too, distancing himself from Paul’s trade idea.

“I think you all know by now, Rich is his own man and what Rich says is not a direct reflection of me and how I feel,” James said to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “And I hope people know that. I hope people know that, and if they’re not sensible to know that, then I don’t know what to tell them.”

He went on to assure everyone that he’s still on good terms with Reaves and values him as a teammate.

“AR knows how I feel about him,” he said. “All you got to do is look at us on the bench. Me and AR talk every single day. So, AR knows how I feel about him and I hope AR — or his camp — don’t look at me and think this is words from me are coming through Rich.”

See how social media is reacting to the potential locker room drama below.