Rich Paul has been making more headlines than usual this past offseason. The power broker long associated with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has been taken to court for mismanagement by his former client Nerlens Noel and has also been a visible figure in the ongoing trade discussions surrounding Klutch Sports client Ben Simmons.

But Rich Paul has long held influence in moves orchestrated in and around the NBA for years now. The spotlight is simply shone brighter on him this time around.

In a recent appearance on The Mike Missanelli Show, NBA legend Charles Barkley was highly critical of the entire Ben Simmons saga unfolding on his former team the Philadelphia 76ers. In his spirited rant against the All-Star's trade demands, he also made it a point to call out Rich Paul, not just for his impact on the Simmons talks, but also for netting the Lakers Anthony Davis two seasons ago.

“You know how that group works,” Barkley said of Rich Paul and Klutch Sports. “They try to trade their players to where they want to. [The Lakers] had better deals from Boston and I think maybe New York. But they're like ‘no, he's gonna go to LA and gonna play with LeBron or he's not going to play.'

“They just bullied the league. At some point, a team of the league got to stand up and say, ‘wait a minute, I paid your guy. You can't bully me to trade him and me taking some trash back'. So I'm hoping somebody in the Sixers organization got some stones.”

To say that Charles Barkley is upset Rich Paul's behind-the-scenes power plays is an understatement. But while it's definitely true that he lobbied for Anthony Davis to get to the Lakers, he's far from the first agent who's ever had such a strong influence.

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The Lakers also surrendered a massive trade package for AD, basically shipping all their assets aside from Kyle Kuzma for the Pelicans big man. While it obviously paid off in the end, it was far from considered lopsided at the time.

Nevertheless, there's no denying Rich Paul's impact in the league, which clearly has Charles Barkley up in arms.