Windhorst: What Madison Square Garden means to LeBron James - ESPN

Mike Brown peered up at the Madison Square Garden crowd, sensing exactly what it wanted. So, with 10 seconds remaining in a 14-point game, the head coach rushed in a substitution so his starter could receive a well-earned standing ovation from New York Knicks fans.

It was a 50-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist performance that finished with a killer fourth quarter to ensure the victory in a moment the player seemed born to embrace.

That game was played March 5, 2008, in Brown's third season at the helm of the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers — and 18 years before he would guide the Knicks to the NBA title in June.

That player was a 23-year-old LeBron James.

«I've dreamed about playing well in this building,» James said, with a glint in his eye, after the 2008 tilt. «To get a standing ovation at the best basketball arena in the world, it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me.»

You can understand why, after witnessing all this, the Knicks' front office personnel had stars in their eyes and No. 23 on their minds. (The Cavs had even obtained permission, at James' request, to wear their alternate navy blue jerseys to match the debut of his Nike LeBron V «Yankees» colorway.)

Less than a week following James' performance, Knicks team president Donnie Walsh hired Mike D'Antoni as New York's newest coach with the explicit purpose to draw James in. On James' next visit to New York, in November 2008, he called D'Antoni «an offensive mastermind,» and Knicks front office staffers might've passed out for a few moments. Cleveland's front office crew, meanwhile, swallowed rather hard.

That praise aside, the Knicks were already convinced James wanted to make Madison Square Garden his next home, so much so that they threw caution