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Rich Paul and Max Kellerman have had discussions about launching a new show with The Ringer, sources tell Front Office Sports.
Details on what the show would be about topics-wise were not immediately available. No deal has been finalized. A spokesperson for Klutch declined to comment and Spotify could not be reached for comment.
Paul founded Klutch Sports in 2012. The agency now represents several hundred players in the NBA, NFL, MLB, WNBA, and pro soccer, including LeBron James, Draymond Green, Anthony Davis, De’Aaron Fox, Darius Garland, Aaron Gordon, Fred VanVleet, Jalen Hurts, Myles Garrett, Bijan Robinson, DeVonta Smith, and Odell Beckham Jr. The agency also represents star USC women’s basketball player JuJu Watkins, who is out for this whole season, and Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, who was recently accused of participating in rigged poker games. Through his attorney, Billups has denied the allegations. Klutch sold a significant stake to UTA in 2019.
Paul is a longtime close friend of James, and has been dating the singer Adele since 2021.
Kellerman, the former ESPN host, is currently working in a number of roles in boxing. He announced the massive fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford on Sept. 13, and is slated to be on the call for Zuffa Boxing, the upcoming partnership between TKO and Saudi official Turki Alalshikh, on Paramount platforms. He co-hosts the show Inside the Ring, which is produced by Omaha Productions and Alalshikh’s Ring magazine, on DAZN.
The Ringer, which was founded by Bill Simmons in 2016 and sold to Spotify in 2020, has some proverbial salary cap space right now as Ryen Russillo, one of the top-paid sports talk hosts in the business, recently left the platform to launch a new business that is backed by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. Spotify recently announced a new deal with Netflix in which a number of podcasts, including several from The Ringer, will air in full on the streaming service in video form.
