LeBron James admits he ‘absolutely’ considered swapping the NBA for the NFL

LeBron James’ story could’ve been completely different if he hadn’t made a crucial decision in his teens to dedicate himself entirely to basketball. Back in high school, he was lured into playing professional football, and now he’s admitted that he had another chance at it during 2011’s NBA lockout. 

It is well known that the NBA superstar is also a passionate NFL fan, as fans have witnessed him throughout the years watching games of his hometown Cleveland Browns. In a recent interview, he revealed that he “absolutely” considered swapping the hardwood for the gridiron.

He opened up during Wednesday’s episode of the New Heights podcast, hosted by football brothers Jason and Travis Kelce. “I didn’t know when we were going to make the deal with the owners and get our league back going,” James said. “So I actually thought about it a little bit back then.”

Lebron thinks that Russell Westbrook and Anthony Edwards are the NBA players that could also play in the NFL pic.twitter.com/ARC3jrhlXn

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“I was still young enough to get out there with y’all. That’s the only time I’ve seriously considered it,” LeBron assured. “I’ve had serious dreams about this sh*t all the time. And in my dream, the ball is never kicked off. It’s me in the warmups, it’s me coming out, running my routes and right when the game starts, I f**king wake up or some sh*t. That lets me know I’m not supposed to be out there.”

According to the all-time NBA leading scorer, during his youth he was even subject of many offers from college football’s biggest names. One of the cases he recalled was when former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel’s tried to convinced him into becoming a dual-sport athlete before entering the NBA draft.

Even though he was courted to try out for the NFL, his basketball dominance was simply too much to ignore. A young James led St. Vincent-St. Mary High School to three basketball state titles, while also being named First Team All-State for playing as a wide receiver in his sophomore season.

According to ESPN, Urban Meyer once told an anecdote about it. “I walked into the school, the coach, Jim Meyer, great guy, probably in 1998 or ’99, and he said: ‘Hey, come here a minute. I want to show you this. What do you think of this kid?’”

“I started watching the video, and I was like: ‘Oh, my God.’ He was six-foot-whatever, obviously real big back then, too,” the college coach said some time ago. “He asked me what I thought and I said: ‘I want to offer him right now. Who is he?’”