LeBron James Free Agency: If You Can't Beat Them, Don't Join Them

The meetings are over. Before, we could only guess what happened behind those closed doors.

Now, we can start guessing what’s going on through LeBron James’ head as he makes his decision. 

You might have been told that entering the mind of James’ is a dangerous territory.

Why? I’m not sure, but probably it’s because we can only speculate but never truly know what he’s thinking.

That’s a bad reason, but it’s my excuse for pushing this idea into LeBron’s head: If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.

Could LeBron be thinking about this as he makes his decision?

Who knows. Expect a huge press conference once he comes forth with his decision, but I won’t buy what he says until his autobiography comes out and he writes the truth.

Point is, he can’t necessarily be considered the greatest ever in the league if he teams up with Dwyane Wade or any other top player in the NBA.

James has to overcome Wade, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. He has to stomp over little Derrick Rose and other rising stars in the NBA. He has to prove that he didn't have to resort to winning titles by choosing his team, but rather by creating his team.

And he has to do that in Cleveland, where he has established his NBA footing.

Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson didn’t choose to team up with the greatest to earn their titles.

Some argue that Jordan, Bird and Johnson had a great supporting cast behind them, and James doesn’t in Cleveland.

Counter argument: James was able to bring a low franchise out of the dust and place it on the top of the NBA with the best record in the league the last two seasons. He brought them to the second round of the playoffs last season, so what's stopping him from pushing the team any further? 

The NBA playoffs just happen to get the worst of James.

The challenge for James is to win rings with a Cavs jersey. Then, he can be rightfully placed among Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and Michael Jordan, who won titles with their respective teams.

Don't get me wrong, James is one of the best to ever play the game. He already has a spot saved for him in the the Hall of Fame. 

It's just principle behind his greatness, and the titles (if any) he has to back it up with.

Initially, the question for James seems to have been “which team increases my chances of winning a title?”

Now, it seems to have shifted to “what really proves that I’m the greatest player in NBA history?”

But really, it’s all a guessing game on what’s going on in the head of the King. Many wonder what James is going to base his decision on.

Maybe we’ll never truly find out until he retires and writes a book about it.