Modern day star male athletes are the most protected species in the world. There is no other group of grown men that is given as much leeway as these athletes. Athletes can get away with a lot of things, but nothing is more surprising than the ability to not be held responsible for publicly wanting out of their contracts that they signed and no longer wish to stick to. Sure they catch some stick, but most of the stick is handed out to agents, who are now somehow seen as instigators, trying to make bigger profits by moving their players to new teams and markets with more financial incentives.
The 2 biggest men in the forefront of this are Mino Raiola and Rich Paul, who have very little in common, except for being painted as villains for the moves that the players they represent make. Mino Raiola has become quite notorious in European Footballing circles as the agent who moves players all around to fill his own pockets. The list of players he represents includes big names like Zlatan Ibrahimović, Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Marco Verratti, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matthijs de Ligt, Erling Braut Håland and the list goes on. One thing common among these players is discord at their clubs at some point, and big transfers involved in their transfers, that included big agent fees up over hundred million dollars.
Rich Paul comes from the humblest of backgrounds. He is the agent of LeBron James, the biggest star in the world of basketball. But he started off selling jerseys from the back of his car. It has been an unusual path for him as basketball agents mostly come from the legal background. That hasn’t stopped Rich Paul though as he now reps some of the biggest names in the NBA world in LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, John Wall among many others. But once again, the narrative around Rich Paul from the NBA media and teams is that, his clients are difficult to deal with because he fills their mind with wild ideas of leaving for bigger markets and making more money.
This makes no sense on any level. The idea that Paul Pogba wants to move away from Manchester United because his agent told him that would be a great idea, is ridiculous. It is completely possible players and agents some times have family like relationships, but when was the last time you upended your life and moved to a new city for a new job because your family told you to do it?
The narrative around Anthony Davis’ move to the Lakers is that he was a nice young boy until he hired Rich Paul a year ago and Paul started poisoning his mind about Los Angeles and the big money he can make. Davis had just seen his close friend DeMarcus Cousins tear an Achilles and lose out on millions of dollars after the Pelicans refused to pay him what he thought he was worth (as was their right, but there is always a price to pay when you show your superstars how you treat players, especially the ones that the said superstars are close friends with), and ended up with back to back minimum contracts.
The fact that agents can influence their players to that extent is ludicrous. These are stories built up by fans that do not want to accept what is real. The teams the stars want to quit are not good, or the players really want to move for the financial gains that they think they deserve. Agents are enablers, not overlords of the players, moving them around like chess pieces to make money for themselves. Paul Pogba does not want to leave Manchester United because Mino Raiola told him Juventus would pay Raiola 20 million for the transfer.
Pogba wants to leave because he was promised a future of competing for the Premier League and Champions League and he has seen nothing close to that level of promise from the squad. The Glazers have made wrong moves at every turn and it is understandable that Pogba does not wish to waste his prime competing in the Europa League and taking on the ridiculous abuse from the British Media. It is just easier for the fans to not accept this and instead blame Raiola as the big bad pulling the strings behind the scenes and that being the reason behind Pogba wanting a move.
And it’s no surprise that the recent news from camp Pogba has been optimistic towards a new contract given the recent uptick in the performances of the team.
The case is even more stark with Anthony Davis. Ever since he was drafted he was saddled with a bad team and a worse GM in Dell Demps, who made moves like trading a first round pick for Omer Asik and extending him to a $58 million deal, as the league moved away from traditional bigs, not that Asik was a good traditional big in the first place. $48 million to Solomon Hill. Max contract to Eric Gordon after he said he didn’t want to stay. $20 million to Alexis Ajinca (who?). The Pelicans built a bad team around Davis for years and we are supposed to believe Rich Paul is the one who convinced him to move to Los Angeles with the big market and LeBron James?
The entire idea that agents are villains influencing the minds of young 25 year old men, who are innocently being manipulated is a narrative that suits both the fans, who wish to blame something other than their failing teams, and the players who would rather the agents take the heat so they can be adored by fans and keep leveraging that into more sponsorship dollars.
The system works for all, that is clear; what it does not do, is make it true.
Sport Microcosm 