Written By|Shannon Johnson
The NCAA is the subject of much debate once again. On Tuesday the NCAA released a memo with regarding their new guidelines for agents representing basketball players entering the draft. The memo states that all agents must have a bachelor degree, be certified by the NBPA for at least 3 years, have professional liability insurance, as well as an exam taken in person at the NCAA offices in Indianapolis to qualify. This has been dubbed by many players in the NBA as “The Rich Paul Rule”.
Rich Paul, who is LeBron James’ best friend, is arguably one of the most powerful agents in the game right now, does not have a bachelor’s degree despite representing star players such as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, and Ben Simmons whom all have contracts in excess of 100 million dollars. Many players took to Twitter and other social media to show their distaste for the new rule.
There are many people out there that feel that the only reason that Rich Paul is in the position that he is in is because he is best friends with Lebron, and that he “cheated”, or had an easier road his way to the top instead of grinding and having to put in years of work to represent some of the games top players even though he is considered to be one of the hardest working men in the business.
There has been outrage from the black community from those who feel like this is just the NCAA flexing its muscles and showing their power again. The NCAA always tends to remind us every year who’s really in charge. Do you think the NCAA is right for mandating this? Leave your comments below.