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Rich Kleiman: how have you started to grapple with the emotional side of knowing that the end is near and the sadness that may come into that? LeBron James: Well, I mean, I think it's having the realization that there's an end to everything, you know, and um, you know, my favorite basketball player of all time and my inspiration growing up was Michael Jordan. It was the end for him. So, if it was the end for one of the greatest ever played a game of basketball, that I ever watched play basketball, then it's inevitable. It's going to happen to all of us. So, it's just being in reality and actuality at the same time. So, I know that the game of basketball will always be with me, no matter what. But also, I am very conscientious and understanding that once it's over, then that's fine, too. Because it's about the things that you did when you play the game and the path that you laid while you was playing the game and being able to lay comfortably after you're done and be like, "Okay, I gave it everything I had and the game was good to me and I poured into the game itself."
Dave McMenamin: At the Game Plan event with Rich Kleiman, LeBron James teased his documentary as something to look forward to in retirement life. James has had a documentary crew from NBA Entertainment collecting footage for it for nearly a decade already.
Dave McMenamin: LeBron James discusses the family aspect of his decision with Rich Kleiman: “I have a 22-year-old son who is now a former teammate of mine … which is hilarious”
Kevin Durant urged the Knicks and Jalen Brunson to make the most of the organization’s historic championship win while they still can. The Rockets star addressed the Knicks during an interview with Wall Street Journal Live in Cannes earlier this week — and the advice he would give Brunson in the face of new advertising and promotional opportunities. “I would tell him to strike while the iron’s hot,” Durant said during the panel alongside Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman and OBB and Bolded founder and CEO Michael D. Ratner. “This is a time that I don’t think New Yorkers or the Knicks are gonna get back. You gotta take advantage of this time right now, you don’t know if this will come around [again]. “It’s been 53 years. It could be another 53-year wait.”
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In the wake of the Grizzlies trading Desmond Bane to Orlando in a June deal that landed them four first-round picks and a first-round swap (in addition to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony), league sources say Kleiman indicated that — if he ever were going to trade Morant — it would require serious draft capital in return. And considering the Bane context, one can imagine how that framing was received by rival teams.
Rich Kleiman: You miss coaching, commentating more, you think? Mark Jackson: I would say coaching. And the reason why I would say that because when I'm commentating, I'm commentating what's taking place on the court. When I'm coaching, I'm impacting lives and I'm making a difference and I'm giving birth to something that I may not be able to be part of it when it's over with, but I'm able to identify and say not just look at Steph Curry, the four-time champ. No, look at Steph Curry, the man, the husband, the father. I take pride in that. There are certain guys and I'm 60 years old I still call them coach and I'll never call him Rick Pitino. That’s coach Pitino to me. Rick Pitino is the best coach I ever played for. And I say that with respect. I don't play 17 years. I don't win rookie of the year. I don't go to an All-Star game. I don't have all any of those things if Rick Pitino is not the first coach I ever played for. The dude had me believing I was better than Magic Johnson. I'm on the court believing I'm Magic. I know I'm not better than Magic Johnson, but if you put me on the lie detector test, I would have passed it because he instilled something in me that I'll forever be grateful.
The restaurant, located at 205 E. Third St. in the old J. Prime location, is a collaboration between Durant and partner Rich Kleiman's Boardroom Hospitality, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and Lobos Hospitality — the Austin-based team behind retro diner Toasty Badger on South Congress Avenue, sandwich shop Manny's and cocktail bar the Powder Room, both located downtown.
Rich Kleiman: Any info or any thoughts around expansion? Shams Charania: NBA Europe is as far as I understand much closer along and that's really in process here over the next two, three years getting that finalized. My feel is that NBA expansion probably trickles closer to after that than it is in junction or before that. I don't I don't have a time period, if I say five years I don't want to be aggregated at that. But I think once it starts trickling into like ownership conversations and the owners are meeting about it and GMs are starting to meet about it, then to me it becomes like, okay, we might be two, three years away and we're not at that point.
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Rich Kleiman: “I think for Kevin, probably in a lot of ways, those were the best three years of his career. Two championships, two Finals MVPs. Obviously, his decision to go to Golden State came with a lot of... and still to this day, comes with a lot of drama. And him leaving? That brought a whole new wave of it. And actually, at this past trade deadline — we’ve spoken about it openly — there was interest in him going back to the Bay. But I think he felt, and I agreed, that it just wasn’t right. I really respect the Warriors for how they handled it. They gave us the space to have those conversations, let us talk through why we didn’t think it made sense, and they didn’t push it any further. That right there? That’s a testament to the kind of relationships we built when we were in the Bay.
Shams Charania: BREAKING: Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant has agreed to a two-year, $90 million contract extension with the franchise, his business partner and Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman tells ESPN. The new deal includes a player option in 2027-28.
NBA mega star Kevin Durant has regained access to his Coinbase account, the crypto exchange giant confirmed to Decrypt via email on Thursday. During a wider discussion of Durant's business interests on Tuesday at CNBC’s Game Plan conference in Los Angeles, the player's agent, Rich Kleiman, made light of his client's inability to log into the account he opened nearly 10 years ago.
In a statement forwarded to Decrypt from Coinbase, Kleiman said that he and Durant had "been working directly with the Coinbase team on Kevin's account recovery, which was why it was easy" for him "to make a joke about it on stage." "It was a user error on our end, and the process has been clear from the jump," he said. "Our partnership spans nearly a decade, and Coinbase has been a valuable resource in growing our business.”