For the past two decades, the NBA has been hard to imagine without the face of the league and the arguable GOAT, LeBron James. But have you ever wondered what if the Lakers superstar had taken a different route and entered the football field instead? While LeBron’s die-hard fans already know, for those who aren’t aware, the big man did have a piece of his heart on the NFL field. Yet, he chose to become one of the absolute best on the hardwood. Mr. James certainly had a solid reason for that. But did he ever wonder what he could have accomplished if he had taken that route?

The NFL star brothers, Jason and Travis Kelce, asked when the NBA-NFL crossover happened on their New Heights podcast with LeBron James taking the hot seat on the show. “Absolutely,” came LeBron’s answer, with a hint of excitement in his voice. But did he give it serious thought? Jason was as curious to know as LeBron’s millions of fans. Well, there was actually a moment when the Chosen One did consider it. When? LeBron revealed that in his response. “The only time I’ve really taken it super duper serious, I believe it was, I think it was 2011 when we had the NBA lockout,” the 40-year-old said.

That year, the NBA experienced a 161-day lockout after the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expired. The owners were firm in their stance to halt all work from July 1 to December 8, which even delayed the new season. During that period, LeBron considered pursuing his long-awaited dream by quitting the NBA. “I didn’t know when we were going to make the deal with the owners and get our league back going. So I actually thought about it a little bit back then,” he explained. “I was still young enough to get out there with y’all. But that’s the only time I’ve actually seriously considered it.”

However, since he couldn’t fulfill that dream, the thoughts continued to haunt him. “I’ve had serious dreams about this sh-t all the time. All the time. And my dream never actually, the ball has never kicked off. It’s like me in the warmups. It’s me coming out, running my routes. And then right when the game started, I was like f-cking wake up or some sh-t.” LeBron shared with a hint of disappointment.

Those broken dreams made him believe, “I’m not supposed to be out there.” So, he finally made his peace once again after letting those feelings settle deep down because of his mom, Gloria.

LeBron James disclosed mom Gloria ended his NFL dreams

The story of young LeBron being pulled away from football came up last year on the Barbershop Podcast when the 20-time All-Star shared a brief incident. He recalled, “I played football my whole life until my senior year in high school. My mama saw the vision. She’s like ‘boy, we in the slums. I love coming to football games but we one year removed from going to the draft. So stop playing this.’”

LeBron couldn’t go against his mother’s wishes, as he had a tough childhood and didn’t have the privilege of ignoring the bright opportunity that came his way the following year with the 2003 NBA draft. “I was like ‘okay. Alright,’” he said, settling the matter there.

But it didn’t happen so immediately. “She wanted to stop me in my junior year. I snuck and played my junior year, and didn’t tell her for the first two weeks of the junior season.” However, then the NBA happened. And there’s no doubt that LeBron loved basketball, as shown by his passionate performances even today. Yet, after nine years, when he got a break, he still wanted to revisit that dream. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. And the NBA fans should be grateful for that, as they probably wouldn’t have had the chance to witness the invaluable impact LeBron James has had on the league so far.