LeBron James: 'Would be hard' to leave Heat after 3-peat

LeBron James led the Heat to four Finals appearances and two championships in his four seasons in Miami, but that still wasn't enough to keep him from the Cleveland homecoming that meant so much to him.

James told CNN's Rachel Nichols, however, that had the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs in last season's Finals to capture a third straight championship, there's a chance he would have stayed put.

It's a greater chance, for sure. It would be hard to leave back-to-back-to-back championships and try to go for four. But obviously you really can't live and think of what may have happened. I've always been a person kind of live in the moment.

The Spurs dominated the Heat in a five-game series that saw all four of San Antonio's victories come by a margin of at least 15 points.

The Heat would have become the first team to three-peat since the 2000-2002 Los Angeles Lakers, and entered this season with a chance to become just the second team ever to win four straight titles. The Boston Celtics famously won eight consecutive championships from 1959-1966.

Given James' awareness and respect for the history of the game, it certainly would have been tough to walk away from that opportunity.

James also told Nichols about his meeting with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who wrote the infamous 'comic sans' letter following James' 2010 decision to join the Heat.

It was a straightforward conversation. It was no beating around the bush. He basically said, 'No matter what decision you make, we wanted to clear the air to where if we see each other in public or we see each other wherever, if I'm competing against you, we can always shake each other's hands and look at the fun times that we had instead of focusing on the one night.'

The CNN interview is scheduled to air on Friday night.