He was due to earn $20 million next season. Qualified players become free agents on July 1. The decision, reported by ESPN, allows James to explore his options, including signing a new deal with the Heat where he has played in four successive NBA Finals, earning two titles since joining them as a free agent in 2010 after seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The announcement came one day after fellow All-Star Carmelo Anthony opted out of the final year of his deal with the New York Knicks to test free agency. Anthony was due to earn $23.5 million with the Knicks.
James addressed the lure of having flexibility last week in an interview after the Heat lost to San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. 'Being able to have flexibility as a professional, anyone, that's what we all would like,' he said. 'That's in any sport, for a football player, a baseball player, a basketball player, to have flexibility and be able to control your future or your present. I have a position to be able to do that. ... There's a lot of times that you're not in control of your future as a professional.' James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, Miami's 'Big Three' who signed together as free agents, are coming off a five-game loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. Each signed six-year deals when they famously teamed up in Miami in 2010, and all of those deals came with options to become free agents either this summer or in the summer of 2015. 'There's a conversation that will be had between the three of us,' James said last week. 'It's only right. We've earned that for each other, to have a conversation and see what could possibly happen.'
Source:DailyMail
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