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Basketball has been on the minds of many these days as ESPN’s The Last Dance reached its epic conclusion on Sunday night. It all served as another reminder of how the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Cowboys defined the 1990s.
Wherever your basketball allegiances lie. it is likely that you or someone you know has debated TLD’s star, Michael Jordan, with the current epicenter of the NBA, LeBron James.
James is the biggest name in basketball and was putting together his best season with the Los Angeles Lakers before sports across the world were suspended. James is a world-class athlete and obviously a basketball star, but in high school he was quite the phenom on the football field as well.
Jerry Jones gave LeBron James a contract during the 2011 NBA lockout
The last championship that the DFW area experienced came almost 10 years ago when the Dallas Mavericks defeated the first incarnation of LeBron James’ Miami Heat. How was that almost a decade ago?!
Shortly after the Mavs won their title things got tenuous for the NBA on the collective bargaining front. As there often tends to be in times like that, there was a lockout that lasted into December which had many people speculating about the future of that particular basketball season (coincidentally the first that LeBron James would experience a title in). It seems that LeBron was prepared in the event of an extended delay in play.
During a Monday night Instagram live session with Paul Rivera and Maverick Carter, James was discussing a variety of things. The subject of having an option besides basketball came up and he discussed how he has had dreams about playing football. Things got particularly interesting when Maverick Carter noted that LeBron was sent a contract by Jerry Jones that James has framed in his office.
LeBron is a noted Cowboys fan so it’s possible that his contract from Jerry Jones was more ceremonial than anything; however, as one of the top athletes in the world it is interesting to consider what went on there given that basketball was somewhat of an uncertainty.
Many have suggested before that LeBron’s athleticism would translate well as some sort of pass-catching option. In 2011 the Cowboys featured a wide receiver group that consisted of Dez Bryant (pre-breakout), Miles Austin, and Laurent Robinson (told you this was a while back), plus they obviously had Jason Witten starring at tight end.
Could LeBron James have contributed to that? It appears that Jerry Jones may have sort of thought so. Either way this is a fun story, but we need to know those contract details!