Could LeBron James have been a Dallas Cowboy? The NBA All-Star reveals that he once pondered playing in the NFL

Could LeBron James have been a Dallas Cowboy?

As crazy as the thought of James playing in the NFL may seem, it’s now known that it was at least floating around in his head during the 2011 NBA lockout.

“To be honest, PR, it actually was,” James told Paul Rivera on Uninterrupted’s “WRTS: After Party” when asked if he pondered playing football. “I had no idea how long the lockout was going to be and myself and my trainer, Mike Mancias, we really started to actually train to be a football player when it came to October and November.

“We started to clock our times on our 40s, we started to add a little bit more to our bench presses and things to that nature.”

Maverick Carter, a friend of James’, added one more interesting nugget. He said James actually received a contract offer from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — and has it framed in his office.

“Mike [Mancias] kept talking about ‘it would be great to go down to Irving, Texas.’ Mike is from Texas, we’re both Cowboy fans,” James said. “He was like ‘it’d be great to go down in Dallas and suiting up for the Cowboys, how great that will be.’”

James has long been documented as a Cowboys fan. He’s been seen on numerous occasions wearing Cowboys hats, tweeting about the team, and even watching a game at AT&T Stadium.

James played some football in high school. But, of course, James was drafted straight out of high school by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 and began an illustrious career in the NBA that has featured three titles, four MVP awards, two Olympic gold medals and 16 All-Star selections.

Still, James ponders what his 6-foot-9, 250-pound frame could have accomplished in the NFL if he had chosen football instead.

“The thoughts came into my mind. But never having the ability to finish my high school career of playing my senior year, I have dreams all the time about playing football,” James said. “It’s crazy because I actually never run on the field in my dreams.

“It always gets to the point where I’m either in the locker room or getting dressed or talking about or seeing the fans and as soon as I’m about to run on the field, something else happens in my dream. It’s like something that it always happens like that.”

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