LeBron 'would actually take a pay cut' to play with Melo, Paul, Wade

LeBron James is no stranger to forming super teams, having twice used free agency to join forces with two other All-Stars.

James, though, still dreams of one day assembling the ultimate supporting cast, with the three other members of his so-called NBA "brotherhood": Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony.

"I really hope that, before our career is over, we can all play together," James told Bleacher Report's Howard Beck. "At least one, maybe one or two seasons - me, Melo, D-Wade, C.P. - we can get a year in. I would actually take a pay cut to do that."

James and Wade have already won two titles and made four Finals appearances together in James' four-year tenure with the Miami Heat. He's played alongside Paul and Anthony for Team USA in international competition, but they've only ever been competitors in the NBA.

James cites the trio as his closest friends in basketball.

"I've got three very good friends in this league, and that's Carmelo, and that's C.P., and that's D-Wade," he said last year. "And after that I have a bunch of teammates."

Perhaps one day they'll be one and the same.

"It would be pretty cool," James told Beck. "I've definitely had thoughts about it."

Anthony, for his part, admits to feeling a twinge of regret at not taking a hint from James and Wade in 2006, when the two signed three-year deals to enter free agency together. Anthony signed a five-year deal instead, and in the summer of 2010, while he was still locked in with the Denver Nuggets, he watched James and Wade team up together - along with draft-class contemporary Chris Bosh - in Miami.

"Yeah, they plotted that," Anthony said. "They plotted that."

Asked why his friends wouldn't have let him in on their plot, Anthony responded, "I guess they was telling me, in their own way: 'Take the three-year deal.'"

That suggestion was put to James.

"We were," he confirmed.

The four friends are all on the wrong side of 30 now, but James suggests there may still be time to make it right.

"We'll see," James said.