LeBron James Reveals Surprise Team That Tried Recruiting Him Before Lakers Move

Before the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Tuesday night, LeBron James revealed the home side tried recruiting him in the summer. James notably became an unrestricted free agent in the summer and was courted by a number of teams before eventually signing a four-year deal with the Lakers.

Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix reported on the first day of July that the Nuggets, who finished ninth in the Western Conference last season, were a team in contact with James and were aggressively trying to pursue a meeting, albeit to no avail.

While many laughed off that report at the time, there was confirmation from James that they were indeed interested as Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke, a good friend of the 33-year-old's, tried recruiting him.

"The owner of the team is a very dear friend of mine, so he discussed it a couple times to me, and also he sent me those throwback jerseys I think they’re wearing tonight. The white ones. The white with the mountains," James said. "... He said ‘you’d look good in one of these.’ But we’ve been on vacation, things of that nature. We have a great friendship, but I didn’t give it much thought."

It would have certainly been interesting to see James play alongside the likes of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Gary Harris as the Nuggets are one of the more impressive teams this season. This was highlighted as they defeated James and the rest of the Lakers in an impressive 117-85 win Tuesday night, improving to 14-7 as they currently lie in third place in the Western Conference.

Coincidentally, though they've not won a championship before, Denver fit the criteria for the kind of team James wanted to join in the summer, even if the likes of the Houston Rockets and the Philadelphia 76ers were still considered above them by James.

"I definitely thought long and hard about the possibilities of lining up alongside Ben [Simmons] and [Joel] Embiid [at Philadelphia], or lining up alongside [James] Harden and Chris [Paul] [at Houston]," James explained late July.

"I just felt like at this point in my career, the ultimate for me -- just like when I went to Miami, everyone kind of looks at me joining a superteam, but if people look at it, I think Miami was [47-35] the year before I joined that team and you can look at the Lakers' record -- so I like the challenge of being able to help a team get to some place they haven't been in quite a while."

It's certainly been a challenge for the Akron, Ohio, native as the Lakers are now 11-9 for the season. They are still above .500 which is an improvement by itself though, and as things stand, are seventh in the Western Conference.

Speaking after the Denver loss, James cited the team's shot-making as a factor after 5-for-35 shooting from three-point range as well as just 39.1 percent overall.

"I think we played well in the first half and we still couldn't make shots," James told reporters. "We didn't make our free throws... we had some very good looks from the three-point line and those didn't go down either."

"You have to make some. Tonight our inability to make outside shots kept their defense pretty much in the paint all game," he added.