NBA star LeBron James going to Miami TOM WITHERS
July 9, 2010 - 12:14PM

AP


Changing teams ... NBA superstar LeBron James. Photo: Getty Images

LeBron James is to join fellow free agent stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at the Miami Heat.

Ending weeks of silence and drama, reigning and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player James said on his ESPN television special that he's decided to join the Miami Heat and leave the Cleveland Cavaliers after an unsuccessful seven-year quest for the championship he covets.

"The best opportunity to win and to win now and to win in the future also," James said. "Winning is a huge thing for me."

It's a huge victory for the Heat, who got commitments from Wade and Bosh a day earlier.

That duo, along with James, formed the upper echelon of the most-celebrated free-agent period in NBAe history.

Heat president Pat Riley landed them all, three stars to help shape his quest for a dynasty in Miami.

And for Cleveland, a city scorned for generations by some of sports' biggest letdowns, James' long-awaited words represented a defeat perhaps unlike any other.

James said he made the decision on Thursday morning and knows it won't go over well in Ohio.

"They can have mixed emotions, of course," James said, adding that Akron will "always be home for me."

© 2010 AP