LeBron James: I Would Do “The Decision” Differently

Regrets? LeBron James has at least one.

The NBA all-star admitted that he would approach his free agency announcement differently if he could revisit it, reports ESPN.

James made his intention to join the Miami Heat known last summer during "The Decision," a prime- time special for ESPN that was highly criticized for being tone deaf and self indulgent.

While he didn't cite specific aspects of the production he would have altered, he did say that it would have been approached in a more thoughtful manner.

"If I had to go back on it, I probably would do it a little bit different," he said. "But I'm happy with the decision I made. There's always going to be a misunderstanding. I don't know what I would [have done], but I definitely would have changed it."

James signed a five year, $110 million contract in the offseason to play with friends Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in South Beach and released a new Nike commercial last week that lashed out at critics of his choice. He also said that he never had a preference list of which team he would play for, outside of a gut feeling about Miami.

"It was some meetings that were better than others. But at the end of the day, this was the team I felt like I had the best opportunity to win for a long period of time," he said. "I didn't have a list, one through six or one through five, whatever the case was."

The power forward talked was linked to six different teams, among them his previous team - the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami, the New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls.

James said he had a great meeting with the Nets, a team that set an NBA record by losing their first 18 games last season.

"I'm here in Miami, but it was a great meeting," he said. "I left with definitely respect for this organization, respect for Avery Johnson, respect for the owner and for everyone that has anything to do with the Nets. Nothing bad for that meeting and nothing bad I have to say about this organization. It was great."

The Nets were purchased by billionaire Russian industrialist Mikhail Prokhorov last year and James noted that the record string of losses didn't hurt New Jersey in the running for her services.

"No, you can't go off that. They're 2-0 now, so I don't think they won their first game until mid-December last year. So you can't go from previous years," he said. "If that's the case, this Miami Heat team won like 15 games [in 2007-08]. Before I got to the Cavs, they only won 17, even though I didn't have anything to do with that because of the lottery. But you don't take a team's past year and based on what the following year could be."

Selected Reading: ESPN, Sporting News, Bleacher Report

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