After the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals for the second-straight year, the attention immediately shifted back to LeBron James and his impending free agency decision.

According to rumors and various reporting, LeBron was only actually considering a handful of teams.

But, in the end, he chose to take his talents to LA.

“I love the young guys that they have and I'm not trying to force my hand in no way, shape or form," James said on Monday, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "I believe Rob and Magic and Jeanie have done an unbelievable job of kind of reshaping what the organization should be in the last few years and keeping Dr. [Jerry] Buss and his dreams and what he was all about, to keep that going. So I feel like they know what's best for the team, and I wanted to be a piece to kind of continue that motion on coming back and being back to a championship franchise where they should be."

"So we have a great young core, we have great veterans, we have a great system and a great organization, more importantly, so it should be fun,” he explained.

In recent days, James has opened up more about his decision. For the first time, he revealed the two other teams that he spent a lot of time thinking about before ultimately choosing the Lakers.

The other two options

"I did my due diligence after the season on the pros and cons of a lot of different teams, including the Cavs, including Philadelphia, including Houston and Los Angeles," James said. "It wasn't as quick as it may seem. It just wasn't as July 9th [range] as it was before. After talking to my family more than anybody, I felt this was the next step in my journey."

Although he didn't take too much time to come to his decision, he didn't rush it. The Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets were both very much in play, he admitted.

"I definitely thought long and hard about the possibilities of lining up alongside Ben [Simmons] and [Joel] Embiid or lining up aside [James] Harden and Chris [Paul],'' he explained.

Now the 76ers and Rockets fanbases can wonder “what if” forever.

Even though he didn’t end up in Philly or Houston, LeBron’s consideration proved that both organizations are well-run and are both on the right path.