LeBron Shared Nike's 'Dream' of Joining Knicks & 'Always Flirted with the Idea,' Reveal NBA Insiders

It's no secret that star forward LeBron James once considered joining the New York Knicks before ultimately signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency this offseason, but it sounds like he wasn't alone with that idea.

During Monday's episode of The Hoop Collective (5:15 mark), ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported that Nike had hoped to see James land with the Knicks before he even entered the NBA in 2003.

"There was this dream, and it was kind of LeBron's dream too because literally the night before he agreed to his Nike contract, in the Nike contract there was this big... he got like a 20 or 30 percent bonus if he had gone to New York," Windhorst explained. "He literally agreed to that the night before the lottery."

Instead, the Cleveland Cavaliers landed the No. 1 pick in the lottery, and the rest is history. The 41-year-old played for multiple teams and enjoyed his trips to Madison Square Garden, but playing for New York was never in the cards.

Still, James admitted that joining the Knicks this offseason would have been on the table had they not won the 2026 NBA championship.

"He has always flirted with the idea of the Knicks for years," ESPN's Alan Hahn said (9:10 mark). "... I always felt like there was going to be a connection at some point. And that's what kind of makes me laugh now, like you were just saying, it's like now that it was finally time, the Knicks were like, 'No, we're good. We got what we needed. We won our championship, so we're all set.' Now, he flies a helicopter to New York instead."

James and the Sixers will open the 2026-27 season against the Knicks on Tuesday night at MSG, and he will have to watch their championship ring ceremony while wondering about what could have been.