Adele spends most of her time in America these days. She’s been primarily living in the LA area for years now. Her marriage fell apart years ago, and she’s officially divorced now, although it took a while to formalize it. Adele also keeps her private life on lockdown. We don’t know who she hangs out with or how many guys she’s dated since her marriage ended. It’s always a surprise whenever Adele does pop up at a public event. So people were like “why is Adele at Game 5 of the NBA Finals?” She showed up in Phoenix over the weekend out of nowhere, and she was seated beside Rich Paul, who is LeBron James’ sports agent and friend. Now the NBA gossip is that Rich Paul and Adele have been dating for a while and Game 5 was their couple-debut.
Adele is reportedly back on the dating scene, but it’s not with one of her music contemporaries … supposedly, it’s someone in the sports world — LeBron James’ sports world, to be exact.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst dropped the bombshell on his ‘Lowe Post’ podcast Saturday night … shortly after the Bucks beat the Suns for Game 5 of the NBA Finals. It was a star-studded game in the stands — and featured none other than Adele, sitting next to LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul … a dude who’s usually behind the scenes, but is a major NBA power broker.
Windhorst was describing the atmosphere and the famous faces in the crowd — and when he got to LeBron and Rich, he didn’t even pretend to play coy with who he says Adele is as it relates to Rich. By that, we mean he straight-up referred to her as his full-blown girlfriend.
Adele was photographed getting cozy next to Rich during the game — but there were no obvious signs of PDA to indicate a relationship. In fact, before Windhorst said this … we’d argue no one even thought anything of the seating arrangement. But, this is … WOW!
Neither party has confirmed the relationship — we got calls into both of their camps, no word back yet — but knowing how plugged in Brian is with all things NBA … something tells us there may be some truth to this. The pro he is, he wouldn’t just drop this without some insight … which he, perhaps, assumed was safe to talk about since they went “public,” as he puts it. Sounds like this is something that’s been known in NBA circles for a minute.
IF true, it might be one of the more surprising pairings we’ve seen in a while. Adele’s been rumored to have dated Drake, Skepta and even Harry Styles at one point last year. Remember, she is newly single following the finalization of her divorce from ex, Simon. All of those rumblings were shot down, though … so it’ll be interesting to see if/when they speak on this.
The only dating rumor I halfway believed was the Skepta one, just because it did feel like there were a lot of Adele-Skepta sightings and rumors and I did think there was something there. But if she’s dating a sports agent, I’m not mad. I do feel like this is probably something well-known in the basketball community, or perhaps even more specifically, the LA Lakers community. Do sports agents’ girlfriends sit in the WAG section? Apparently not – Adele and Rich Paul were front-row, courtside.
Rich Paul and Adele? Not even mad pic.twitter.com/4oZ24XP78M
— Stephen Dacres (@stephendacres) July 18, 2021
— v (@ViralMaterial) July 18, 2021
Screencaps courtesy of the NBA Finals/YouTube.
Well good for her!
Don’t think Phoenix have a WAG section . Kendall shares a box with Booker’s brother because his sister cannot currently go as she has microdeletion syndrom
Oh and Rich is Kendall’s ex Ben Simmons agent as well and Ben’s sister work for him
I got super excited because I quickly read she is dating LeBron! Lol
Lebron has a beautiful wife and kids.
she looks absolutely gorgeous.
Woah. Power Couple to end all power couples. Good for her!
Brian Windhorst is not a gossip. He is one of the most well respected reporters in sports and he is close to Lebron’s circle. He would not have said girlfriend if he didn’t know it to be true. They were court side because Rich Paul is much much more than Lebron’s agent. He runs a media/entertainment business. So no he and Adele would not have been seated in the wives/family section. I love this as a go public moment. It’s a controlled event. They’re “on display” but the crowd attention is mostly on the event.
It’s a classy way to say “we are seeing each other” in those circles, and this is his professional realm. He’s worked with LeBron James since they were practically teenagers. He’s a fascinating person who works at the tippy-top of his field, just like her.
Good for them!
I watch Lebron’s show The Shop ( and it’s really set in a barber’s shop and guests can get their hair cut during the show). Anyway, Lebron’s business partner, Maverick Carter co-hosts and I’ve always thought he’s hot as hell. Just wow.
This man is a big f’ing deal in the NBA. This is a power couple alright. I love this for Adele.
Good for her. He’s her professional equal (in the sense that he’s a BFD) and he’s pretty hot.
Not American so I don’t know anything about basketball but she looks really good!
I am always cheering for Adele… I hope this is true!
I’m always cheering for Adele too. I like her voice, music, and the way she conducts herself and guards her privacy.
Best wishes to Adele.
Major power couple alert. Rich Paul is a HUGE power player in NBA circles – not just Lakers circles. He’s LeBron James’ agent and one of his oldest and closest friends and he founded and runs a very prominent agency – Klutch Sports – that represents many NBA players. He’s been centrally involved in many high profile NBA contract negotations, including but not limited to helping Anthony Davis force his way out of New Orleans to join LeBron on the Lakers. This includes a huge role in shifting the balance of power between team owners and league superstars. Here’s a profile of Paul in The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/07/lebron-james-agent-is-transforming-the-business-of-basketball