Fresh off his fourth NBA title, LeBron James is more popular around the league and with fans, than ever. However, citing a story that appeared in The Athletic and several other sources, Fox Sports Radio host Ben Maller said Friday morning that James is using that popularity for illegal business activities. In fact, Maller entitled his podcast on the topic, “LeCriminal”.
“LeBron has been accused of illegal business activities that are hurting his fellow NBA players,” Maller said. “This is a pretty big accusation.”
According to The Athletic story, as reported by Heavy.com Sports, an anonymous agent says James is using his pull to influence players to sign with Klutch Sports, which is owned by James’ agent Rich Paul.
“The worst thing that LeBron is doing is forcing this power with Rich Paul and what that is, in terms of, he’s a player, but he has prowess in the media space,” the source said. “His company Spring Hill, that’s awesome. Doing the movies and all of the projects, that’s so commendable. I love that. But now that they’ve jumped into the agent game, which the reality is, it’s illegal for a player, particularly if you’re in the state of California, to be licensed to represent talent.”
“Do we believe this story?” Maller asks his audience. “I’m shaking my head, yes. LeBron is so omnipresent now he is working the system and no one is going to stop him. I see this as a union issue more than anything else. Nobody in the union has the machismo to stand up to LeBron and its hurting mid-level players.”
According to a 2017 article in Bleacher Report though, James was investigated by the NBA after similar accusations were made when he was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was later cleared of all wrongdoing.
That did not stop Maller from going after James, however.
“Some players are just collateral damage in the hustle,” Maller said. “Kentavious Caldwell Pope lost millions of dollars being a good little soldier for Klutch Sports by going to the Lakers instead of an 80 million dollar contract with the Pistons. With the Lakers, he earned about 37 million. That’s a lot of money KCP lost because of this. He and other players like him are getting a screw job but there is zero chance the NBA rolls LeBron back on this because he has absolute power. As the English nobleman (Lord Acton) said ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’.”
