Rich Paul is at it again with an unusual defense of LeBron James, and this time Cam Newton is stepping in to dispute it.
In a recent clip posted by the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, Paul claimed that James is a more unselfish player because unlike Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, he grew up in a single-parent household.
“When you look at LeBron, LeBron’s mom was 16 when she had him as a child,” Paul said after explaining that Jordan and Bryant each grew up with both parents around. “Now, he spent a lot of time by himself, right? He did not develop…taking the last shot over three people is a selfish gene. That don’t make you having killer instinct. That’s a selfish behavior. That’s a gene.”
Paul, who runs Klutch Sports and has represented James for nearly two decades, later added that James’ style of play is built around his desire to “befriend people.”
“Psychologically, when you spend the time that you spent by yourself, quite naturally, you want to do what? You want to befriend people, and you built a game off of making other guys look good,” Paul said.
Similar to Paul’s recent revelation that the disdain for James around the league has led to Klutch losing clients, the clip displayed a surprising depth of thought from within James’ camp over how to defend his reputation and legacy.
But on Wednesday on his podcast 4th and 1, Newton offered a simple retort.
“Somebody gotta tell Rich, brother … what the hell are you talking about?” the former NFL MVP quipped.
“What’s having a two-parent household got to do anything? As if to say, you’ve gotta have a two-parent household to be labeled an unselfish player. Don’t nobody care nothing about that. Do you got the clutch gene?”
If there is anyone who knows what it’s like to have their family life and personality scrutinized as a star athlete, Newton is on the list. So while his response to Paul may not be as nuanced as Paul was hoping for when he put out the opinion, Newton is ultimately responding with the bottom line of how James will be analyzed historically if he wants to be considered the greatest NBA player ever.
For good measure, Newton also reminded his audience that Paul is not exactly a neutral observer when it comes to James.
“You’re talking about selfish basketball players? Man, hit the shot. I don’t care nothing about your household,” Newton said.
“We over here trying to give all these reasonings about him being better … you’ve got insider trading brother, because you are who you are to LeBron. And I’m mad that Wallo even allowed him to just keep going on.”
As Paul has made more of a name for himself in the media, doing a press tour around his memoir and launching a podcast with Max Kellerman, he has proven to be a thoughtful voice on the big-picture issues facing the NBA and its players. However, that may work against Paul when he goes to such great lengths to defend James.
In this case, Newton’s blunt dismissal of Paul’s convoluted theory about how James grew up compared with other greats reveals that Paul is too biased to fight media battles on James’ behalf.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.