ESPN.com reports that James, Wade and Bosh - all set to become unrestricted free agents at 12:01 a.m. Thursday - met some time in the last few days. Speculation is the trio talked of playing together with the Heat, but that James has not ruled out returning to the Cavaliers or other options he will have.
LeBron James (left) and Dwyane Wade (right) have been involved in some memorable games between James' Cavaliers and the Heat's Wade.Chris Broussard and Marc Stein are reporting for ESPN.com that the Cavaliers' LeBron James, the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade and the Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh met at some time over the last few days to talk about their NBA futures. All three are set to become unrestricted free agents at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
The ESPN.com report includes:
Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball -- Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James -- met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade's Heat.
Yet sources with knowledge of the meeting stressed to ESPN.com that James, while clearly intrigued by the possibility of forming a star-studded Miami trio with Wade and Bosh, has not yet committed to leaving his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for South Beach.
One source did label Miami as the new frontrunner to land James in a package deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cautioned that James was "non-committal" with the start of free agency fast approaching.
Sources said James remains committed to fielding free-agent pitches from several teams when free agency officially opens Thursday at 12:01 a.m. ET, with the Chicago Bulls continuing to rank as a highly appealing destination and a return to Cleveland still figuring prominently in his thinking and with the Dallas Mavericks looming as an intriguing outsider.
Also, in the ESPN.com report:
Sources said James, furthermore, has not ruled out staying with the Cavaliers. Although Cleveland does not have the financial flexibility or the trade assets to import Bosh or Wade and enhance its chances of retaining this summer's face of free agency, James is a proud Ohioan who is said to be still wrestling with the notion of leaving his home state, no matter how enticing the possibilities are in Miami and Chicago.