When Dwyane Wade retired from the NBA in 2019, Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith met him on a golf course in San Clemente, California, struck up a friendship, and two years later made him a co-owner of a franchise Wade had never played a single game for. When Tom Brady retired from the NFL in 2023, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis, a man who admitted he disliked Brady for years as an opponent, moved immediately to bring him in as a minority partner in the organization. The best franchises in professional sports, the argument goes, do not let generational figures walk out the door and into someone else’s building. On Thursday, the man who has guided LeBron James’ career for over two decades made that argument directly and pointed it squarely at the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rich Paul, speaking on the Game Over podcast, issued what amounted to a clear directive. “When you have a player like LeBron James, on, off the court, you keep that guy a part of your organization,” Paul said. “The Lakers should be delighted that he played there. … And also, they should be doing everything they can to make sure he’s a part of that organization going forward. Because guess what? You won’t find another.” The message is pointed and timed. With LeBron at 41 and the Lakers still navigating a live playoff run without their two best players, Paul is not waiting for the retirement conversation to reach its conclusion before staking out what comes after.

The examples Paul reached for were deliberate. Wade, who never played for the Utah Jazz, joined Ryan Smith’s ownership group in April 2021, becoming one of only a handful of Hall of Fame-level players with NBA ownership stakes alongside Grant Hill in Atlanta and Shaquille O’Neal in Sacramento. Paul’s point: Smith did not wait for a pre-existing connection. He identified a champion, someone whose presence, credibility, and competitive DNA could shape a franchise’s culture, and went and got him. Mark Davis made the same calculation with Brady, finalising a minority ownership agreement in May 2023 before the NFL’s full approval process was even complete, absorbing the 17-month wait because the long-term value was self-evident. Paul’s message to the Lakers is that James represents a rarer version of the same opportunity, and the window to act on it is open right now, not after he announces a retirement date.

Paul’s framing also carries a subtle edge. He is not simply saying the Lakers should honour LeBron, he is saying they would be foolish not to. “You won’t find another.” The suggestion underneath the tribute is that failing to retain him in some front-facing, decision-making, or ownership-adjacent capacity would be an organizational miscalculation on the scale of letting one of the greatest players in the sport’s history become someone else’s asset. Magic Johnson previously held a 4% stake in the Lakers before stepping back from his front office role in 2019, a precedent already baked into the franchise’s DNA. Paul is not asking for something unprecedented. He is asking the Lakers not to be the franchise that lets the blueprint collect dust.

“The Champion Heart”: Why Paul’s Wade And Brady Comparisons Hit Different

The Wade and Brady references were not random. They were the two sharpest points on the argument Paul was constructing: two generational athletes, in two different sports, retained by franchises they had no prior obligation to, because smart owners understood that their mere presence reshapes an organization. “What you can’t deny,” Paul said, “is the champion heart, the production, and the professionalism that Dwyane Wade was while playing the game.” The implication is that LeBron James is that, and more.

What makes Paul’s argument particularly timely is the current moment. LeBron James is in the middle of a playoff run that has already drawn comparisons to the greatest individual postseason performances of his career, carrying a shorthanded Lakers roster to a 3-0 series lead over Houston, without Luka Doncic, without a full Austin Reaves, and while navigating the residual effects of a sciatica injury that sidelined him for the first month of the season.

The version of LeBron that Paul is asking the Lakers to keep inside their building is the one currently on display: a competitor whose value extends far beyond what he produces on a given night. Rich Paul had told his ESPN bosses, per Brian Windhorst, to begin retirement content planning as recently as December, before LeBron found his rhythm back, meaning Paul himself has recently reconsidered the timeline.

Appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, Windhorst revealed that when LeBron James returned from the sciatica injury that sidelined him for the first 14 games of his 23rd season, the sight was alarming. “When he first came back, he looked terrible, to be fair. For the first time, he looked old,” Windhorst said. “I remember watching when he first came back and saying, ‘Oh, this might be it.’”

The numbers backed that up early, as James averaged roughly 14 points across his first six games back, far below his usual scoring output, with noticeably fewer drives and less burst. The message to the Lakers, issued publicly, is that whenever that day arrives, the planning on their end should have started already.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​