LeBron James and Dwyane Wade admitted they strongly considered signing with the Bulls.

"It was two mornings," Wade said at Friday's practice of waking up during the summer of 2010 envisioning himself with Chicago.

"I definitely had one or two mornings where I woke up thinking I'd be a Bull too, but ultimately I decided to come here," James said.

Wade grew up in Chicago and admired the Michael Jordan teams of the nineties.

"It was flattering," Wade said. "I grew up in the city and grew up with my dreams of becoming an NBA player with the Chicago Bulls. They gave a great presentation, great opportunity. I just felt that the Miami opportunity was better. That's what it came down to."

"I think it was very close," said Wade's agent Henry Thomas to ESPNChicago.com. "We obviously -- before the process started -- we talked about how we were going to handle it. Once we began and once the presentations were made, the Bulls' presentation was as good as any -- if not better.

"The decision became a lot more difficult than he imagined how it would be. Obviously for him the Chicago one was special because he grew up here. As a young kid, he idolized Michael [Jordan] and all those teams. I know when we went in for the presentation, they had a uniform with his name and number on it. As a kid growing up here you dreamed of having that uniform on. For that reason it was difficult."

When asked about his meetings with the Chicago front office, James spoke highly of them as well.

"It was definitely flattering," James said Friday. "It was a great meeting with that team and that franchise knowing the history. There was great things that they said but at the end of the day, I felt like this was the best opportunity for me to win a championship. It was a great experience."