(USA Today) – The silence grew louder as the week went on.
Two days into free agency — nearly 66 hours, to be exact — and the agent for LeBron James, the man who had been charged by his high-profile client to handle all free agency negotiations with prospective teams, Klutch Sports’ Rich Paul, had been mysteriously quiet.
Until now.
The noise surrounding the game’s greatest player grew with all the speed of one of his vintage fast breaks on Thursday, when it was revealed that teams hoping to land the biggest fish in the free agent market spent recent days meeting with Cleveland-based Paul in his city to make their respective pitches.
Two people with knowledge of the situation said the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks were among those teams. ESPN.com, which first reported the revelation, indicated that the Houston Rockets were also among the group. The people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the process.
The coming days will determine if this story is about to swing, if all those signs that James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh were going to all re-sign in Miami are no more. But this much is clear: The longer Heat President Pat Riley continues to shoot free agency air-balls in his latest attempt to revamp the roster, the greater the odds that James might head for the door.