Rich Paul and Max Kellerman’s new Ringer podcast, Game Over, debuted yesterday and already seems to have gotten attention from sports fans. Unfortunately, not all of that attention has been positive so far.
Paul, the super agent who founded Klutch Sports, is most known for representing LeBron James and being engaged to singing superstar Adele. He’s one of the most connected people in the NBA, and so when his podcast was announced, fans were excited at the prospect of getting a behind-the-scenes look at the league from one of its biggest power players.
In the premiere episode of Game Over, Paul briefly paused the conversation to take a phone call from insider Shams Charania, while Kellerman waited and smiled awkwardly.
The reaction to Shams’ interruption has ranged from outraged to dubious. One commenter called it “Extremely rude and unprofessional.” Another called it a “lame flex.”
He definitely told Shams about the Luka trade pic.twitter.com/kisgwhcVFC
— MFFL (@Mavs_FFL) December 11, 2025
One even suggested that Shams didn’t call at all. This gets to the heart of why agents don’t tend to have successful podcasts — people don’t believe what they say because it all just seems like public relations in order to serve their clients. Is Paul really here to talk sports and give fans unprecedented access? Or are there other forces at play?
At another point in the episode, Paul said, “I personally don’t think the Lakers are good enough to be contenders, not right now.” That seems like a wild statement to make when LeBron James is his friend and biggest client. Unless of course, one considers the possibility that Paul is saying this on LeBron’s behalf to pressure the Lakers into making a win-now kind of move.
LeBron has been infamous throughout his career for his passive-aggressive influence campaigns in order to get his teams to do what he wants. Is Paul’s new podcast just a new way to accomplish those same goals?
People are already skeptical of Paul’s motives, and that’s troubling considering that the show just premiered yesterday. Fans crave authenticity, and if they get the feeling that everything’s not on the up-and-up, they’ll quickly tune out.
The fact that he responded, “Don’t worry about all that” when Kellerman asked about the flow of information between himself and Shams doesn’t help.
The NBA podcast space is crowded enough as it is, so if Paul isn’t actually bringing something new and real to the table, then Game Over will fail before it even gets off the ground. Here’s hoping that he starts to bring the heat next episode.
