CLEVELAND — Maybe he was trying to lessen the booing tonight at Quicken Loans Arena.

Maybe he’s not enamored with South Beach or his new organization.

LeBron James

Maybe he decided New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin had been center stage long enough.

Maybe he wasn’t thinking.

Maybe he was serious.

Whatever the reason, Miami Heat small forward LeBron James thrust himself smack dab into the spotlight Thursday when he said he’d consider playing for the Cavaliers again.

“I think it would be great,” James said following Miami’s shootaround at The Q. “It would be fun to play for these fans again. I had a lot of fun in my seven years here. You can’t predict the future.

“Hopefully, I continue to stay healthy. I’m here as a Miami Heat player and I’m happy where I am now, but I don’t rule that out in no sense. And if I decide to come back, hopefully the fans will accept me.”

Now 27 and in his ninth NBA season, James left the Cavs in the summer of 2010 as an unrestricted free agent, announcing “The Decision” to take his “talents to South Beach” live on ESPN.

That led to an infamous open letter to Cleveland fans from Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, with whom James said he has not made amends. In the letter, which was emailed to media outlets the night of “The Decision,” Gilbert repeatedly ripped James and promised the Cavs would win an NBA title before the Akron native did.

“I don’t have any hard feelings,” James said. “He said what he said and I moved on. There’s been no attempt to patch things up.

“I don’t hold grudges. I hold ’em a little bit, but I don’t hold them that long.”

Whether Gilbert would consider signing the 6-foot-8, 250-pound James is uncertain. A Cavs spokesman said the owner would not — and could not — comment on the matter because James is under contract to the Heat. As of Thursday evening, Gilbert had not posted on his Twitter account since Saturday, the day Cleveland center Anderson Varejao was diagnosed with a fractured right wrist.

Even if Gilbert were willing to pursue the possibility, there’s still the matter of having enough salary cap space to sign James in the summer of 2014, the earliest the two-time league MVP can opt out of his deal with Miami.

James will make almost $19.1 million in 2013-14 and has player options that would pay him $20.6 million in 2014-15 and $22.1 million in 2015-16.

But for one day, at least, the St. Vincent-St. Mary High product seemed perfectly open to one day playing for Gilbert again.

“He said what he said out of anger,” James said. “He probably would want to take that back, but I made a mistake, too. There’s some things I want to take back as well. You learn from your mistakes and move on.”

Asked directly if he could play for Gilbert, James said. “Dan is not the coach. I could play for any coach. We’ll see what happens.”

Moments earlier, James had said he’d love to finish his career with the Heat, which lost to Dallas in the 2011 NBA Finals.

Then, without so much as pausing to catch his breath, he added again that he’d consider coming back to Cleveland, apparently unconcerned with how his comments would go over in Miami.

Word of James’ interview — about 25 media members were on hand — quickly got back to the Cavs, who were working out at Cleveland Clinic Courts in nearby Independence.

Veteran Antawn Jamison, acquired at the trade deadline in 2009-10, is currently the only healthy Cavs player who played with James in Cleveland. Varejao, Anthony Parker and Daniel Gibson, the other players left from James’ time with the Cavs, are injured.

“It surprises me he said it now,” a smiling Jamison said when told of James’ comments. “Three years down the road, it wouldn’t surprise me if he entertained the idea. After the first go-round, I don’t think anything would surprise you as far as scenarios.”

Cavs coach Byron Scott, who played in the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson era, refused to address James’ comments about possibly returning to Cleveland. But when asked if such statements would have been made in the 1980s, he shook his head no.

“It didn’t happen in our day,” Scott said. “You played where you played, period. If you got traded, that was a different story. If you left as a free agent, that was a different story.

“But you didn’t publicize you wanted to play somewhere else. We just didn’t do those things. But this is a different day. We had a lot more respect for the organizations we played for. A lot of this stuff I don’t understand, because I’m old school.”

James, who signed an estimated $100 million endorsement contract with Nike before he played his first NBA game with the Cavs in 2003, represents the new-age player.

That hasn’t kept him from having a sensational career. He was league MVP with Cleveland in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and led the Cavs to the 2007 NBA Finals, but James, who is averaging 28.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists for the Heat, still doesn’t have a championship ring.

“No matter where my career ends up, my goal is still the same, and that’s to win a championship,” he said. “I’ve accomplished all you can as an individual.”

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.

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