{"id":518212,"date":"2026-09-28T18:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=518212"},"modified":"2026-09-28T18:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:47:34","slug":"lebron-james-reveals-he-envisioned-joining-knicks-as-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/lebron-james-reveals-he-envisioned-joining-knicks-as-free-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James reveals he envisioned joining Knicks as free agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James shared that his free-agent decision came down to 5 organizations: the 76ers, Cavs, Warriors, Heat, and Timberwolves.<\/p>\n<p>But there was another franchise LeBron planned to sign with before that team ended a 53-year championship drought this summer: the NY Knicks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had thought about playing in the Madison Square Garden and finishing my career in the Big Apple,\u201d LeBron said during Philadelphia\u2019s annual media day. \u201cOne of the best arenas I have ever played.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout a doubt, it\u2019s the best venue in the world for a basketballer. But after they defeated the Spurs, I understood that I can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LeBron admitted that the potential backlash from joining the Knicks after they had won the championship played a huge role in his decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would have heard about it every day and would never end even when I retire,\u201d the NBA superstar shared. \u201cBut I want to congratulate the Knicks, as they have phenomenal players, and I love Jalen Brunson, as he is a phenomenal basketball player. But in the end, I\u2019m really happy to be here and looking forward to trying to win the title with the 76ers.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI didn\u2019t leave my family to lose in the second round\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LeBron James is locked in for Year 24 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ERiraZIQ6P\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/ERiraZIQ6P<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/barstoolsports\/status\/2104597201083060651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">September 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James shared that his free-agent decision came down to 5 organizations: the 76ers, Cavs, Warriors, Heat, and Timberwolves. But there was another [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4225,"featured_media":518213,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[16972,16840],"news_category":[16706,14084],"gn_keywords":[17644,17913],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"The NBA legend said he considered signing with the Knicks.","video":["video"]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/518212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/518212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518214,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/518212\/revisions\/518214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518212"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=518212"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=518212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}