Anybody who’s ever set foot in New York City knows that its nostalgic charm isn’t left on the movie screen when you visit the reality.

It oozes character from every crevice like the steam that escapes the depths of the subway and rises up slowly through the streets on cold winter mornings.

Travel through any of the five boroughs and you will find a plethora of stories from families who left behind everything they had to relocate their livelihood to a place where the realms of possibility seem endless. It is a multicultural melting pot that is synonymous with hope, optimism and the American Dream. The metropolis is fueled by the credo that anything is possible and as Sinatra so famously sang: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

“New York” is the name that was bestowed on the northeastern American city by English settlers in 1664. The name itself is a derivative of the English Duke of York and Albany. Since then, over the next 346 years, the city has grown into something greater than just the 790 km2 of land that it inhabits. And throughout this time it has accumulated a roll call of nicknames as long as the Hudson River:

Gotham. The City. The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. Concrete Jungle. The Empire City. NYC. The Greatest City In The World. The City So Nice They Named It Twice. The Centre of The Universe.

The list could probably go on. So, what’s one more moniker to the list?

“LeBron’s Kingdom” is catchy, wouldn’t you say?

Over 8 million people call New York City home. If in July one more person decided that they too wanted to take the plunge and become a resident of the most populous city in the United States, then what would be strange about that? The population climbs steadily every year with new people chasing the elusive dream. But what if that person was a man who had the potential to single-handedly rescue basketball in New York City and become a figure bigger than the actual city itself. What if?

The man in question, and the man that New York sports fans hope will be their newest neighbour this July, is perennial superstar, LeBron James.

As he blazes a trail towards his second successive NBA Most Valuable Player award, whilst leading his Cleveland Cavaliers team to the best record in the league, New York’s once powerhouse basketball team, the Knicks, limp to the conclusion of another disheartening season. In a few short days the NBA playoffs will begin. LeBron and his Cavaliers teammates will take a step back, regroup, and sharpen their focus on the task of winning the sports’ ultimate prize, an NBA Championship. But for the lowly New York Knicks, the NBA Playoffs will be the furthest things from their collective minds. Their ultimate prize will come in the form of a signature on paper this summer, not in the form of a bronzed trophy.

When the clock strikes midnight on July 1, the Knicks, along with a shortlist of NBA teams who have the financial ability to acquire LeBron’s services, will begin making phone calls. The once-in-a-generation player will be out of a contract, and the courting will begin. LeBron, who circumvented all the recruiting hoopla when he bypassed college in 2003 to join the NBA directly out of high school, will be in for a wild ride.

The red carpet is currently at the dry cleaners, the champagne is chilling and the charter jets are getting their final service. The biggest recruiting mission in professional sports is about the take place. On the surface, it would seem as though the Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the box seat to reclaim their most prized possession, especially considering they have the right to offer $30million more than any other team. But rest assured, they will be looking over their shoulder as potential suitors’ line-up behind them, keen to abduct the greatest basketball player alive from the franchise that drafted him.

Should they be worried? Somewhat. Primarily because these days LeBron James is motivated by more than just money and shooting hoops.

LeBron doesn’t want to just win titles; his sights are set on an even greater desideratum: to become a global icon. Sure, the championship rings will begin to tally on his large fingers over time, this much is a formality, but if these titles were to transpire with his native Cleveland Cavaliers – LeBron hails from Akron, Ohio – would it be enough for a man with an insatiable thirst for global supremacy?

His ultimate goal is to transcend his profession and become bigger than the game itself, once saying that he covets to become the sports first billion-dollar athlete. The best case study for such conquest regularly takes up a courtside seat to watch his young protégé perform his craft.

Shawn Carter, aka, Jay-Z: the man who conquered the New York music scene. It’s no secret that LeBron and Jay-Z have developed a tight friendship in recent years. The hip-hop mogul has been somewhat of a mentor to the basketball prodigy ever since the two first met at a Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago when LeBron was just 15 years old. Since that day, the two icons of their respective professions have spent many a minute together discussing life, wealth and everything in-between.

Jay-Z, a Brooklyn native, has achieved success in a diverse range of professions and has played a pivotal role in encouraging LeBron to expand his interests outside of basketball. Aside from being a Grammy Award-winner, Jay-Z boasts a résumé that includes undertakings as a record label president, club owner, hotelier, advertising company proprietor and has produced his own clothing line. LeBron is chasing this kind of legacy.

For LeBron, it’s as much about what happens off the hardwood floor, as what happens on it, and Cleveland knows this all too well. In the past few seasons they have done everything they can to keep their star player by constructing a team around him that can challenge for a championship. This is something that does not wash over the 25-year-old. LeBron loves the organization and loves his home state of Ohio even more.

But is hometown glory enough? The bright lights of the big smoke are calling the kid from Akron. If it really is about more than basketball, about something greater, something that can only be achieved on the world’s biggest stage, then his decision should be elementary. There is only one logical place to achieve such a dream.

New York City.

When you win in New York you are immortalized. People never forget. The same could be said about failure, something that New Yorker’s frown upon like the “B” of a Boston Red Sox cap. But the reward outweighs the risk.

In 1968, Joe Namath led the New York Jets to their first and only Super Bowl title. Nicknamed “Broadway Joe”, New York instantly fell in love with the blue-eyed kid out of Alabama. They made allowances for his obvious flaws as a quarterback, instead directing their focus on what he guaranteed and delivered for the city: a championship. Despite sub-par career statistics, Namath punched his ticket to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, sealing his legacy.

In the 1980’s New Yorker’s turned a blind eye to the obvious substance abuse problems of outside linebacker Lawrence Taylor. What he did on the field was the only thing that they really cared about, and boy, did he do a lot on the field. An otherworldly force that inflicted pain on opposing quarterbacks with his combination of breathtaking speed and astonishing strength, Taylor revolutionized the game. He was the most feared specimen in professional sports and turned the New York Giants football team into Super Bowl champions in 1986 and 1990. To this day, they still talk about the man who wore number 56.

Mark Messier had nothing left to prove when he joined the New York Rangers in 1991 after winning five Stanley Cups for his hometown Edmonton Oilers. But little did he know that his sixth and final Stanley Cup crown was going to be the one that defined his career. The Rangers had not won the Cup since 1940, so when Messier threw them on his back in the 1993-94 season and led them to the promise land, the city of New York would be forever indebted to the Canadian legend. He was instantly thrust into the upper echelon of New York sporting folklore, a place where he will remain forever.

The New York Yankees honor role is a long and distinguished one. Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Mattingly, Jeter, Rivera. Names synonymous with success. Legends of the game, each of them representing a different generation of Yankees prosperity. With their legacies cemented in New York mythos, they hold a God-like status from the Bronx to Beirut. Even the “NY” logo that adorns the face of the team cap has become a global icon in its own right, bridging a gap between fandom and fashion.

So when LeBron begins to weigh up his options on July 1, he must think long and hard about where the next chapter of his young life will be written.

Stay in his home state. Continue living in his dream mansion that he built near Akron. Be the quintessential hometown hero and win a title or three for the people he grew up with. Rein forever as the King of Cleveland.

Or make the move.

Rebuild the New York Knickerbockers. Make the Garden the hottest ticket in town again. Turn the team into a contender. Become a legend of New York City and realize his dream of becoming LeBron James: Global Icon.

When it’s all said and done, LeBron holds all the cards – the four suits, two jokers and one instruction card. Not his agent, not Donnie Walsh, not his teammates. He is the master of his own destiny; only he knows where this wild ride will end. But whichever road he wishes to travel, it won’t be an easy choice.

Any decision to leave Cleveland would take supreme testicular fortitude. When it was announced that the hometown Cleveland Browns football team was to be relocated to Baltimore back in 1995, the city almost shut down. Fans protested the move fervently and things got ugly in the final game before the relocation as fans threw seats onto the field and set fire to parts of the stadium. They’d had their hearts broken and they let out their frustration.

If LeBron leaves, forget just shutting down the city. It would be the apocalypse. The city, with a baseball team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1948 and a football team that has made the playoffs only twice in the past 21 years, would be in turmoil. Despite the historical losing record of Cleveland sports teams, LeBron has pulled aside the curtain and offered them a glimpse at what is on offer in first class. Once you see the other side the curtain, there’s no going back. Anything less seems second rate. If LeBron were to leave, the Cavaliers, and the city, may never recover.

It is something that must weigh heavily on LeBron’s mind. He has a young family with his high school sweetheart, Savannah Brinson, and lives in a dream house that he built just 40 minutes drive from the Quicken Loans Arena. His mother Gloria attends games, regularly looking after 5-year-old LeBron Jr. as Dad entertains the 20,562 people in attendance. It’s a full-blown family affair when the Cavaliers play their 41 regular season home games. A move elsewhere would change everything.

LeBron is not short of options. For the New York Knicks however, there is no Plan B. President Donnie Walsh has taken the chips and splashed the pot. All in. The Knicks fan base has endured some very tough times over the past few years, but one thing has kept them going: the Summer of 2010. Despite not filling the hallowed arena, the supporters still turn out in droves.

There is something magnetic about the Garden that continues to draw people in, even though they are spending their hard earned money on an inferior product. The fans remain passionate, knowing that at least this summer there’s a chance that something good might happen to their team after a decade of turmoil. They cling to this hope. And essentially, that’s what the great city of New York is built upon. The opportunity. The fighting chance. The exiguous possibility that one break can change everything.

Both teams present valid arguments as to why they deserve the man they call the Chosen One. But if LeBron’s appetite for greatness is really that ravenous, then he will head east and not look back. People will be hurt along the way, franchises disappointed. But if he truly believes he was put on this earth to serve a greater purpose than just play basketball, then this can only be achieved on a stage as grand as Broadway. My head says he’ll most likely stay in Cleveland, but my heart hopes he’ll move to the City.

It will likely be a head and heart decision for the man himself too. But in the end, there is only one place big enough to hold LeBron’s Kingdom, and unfortunately for Cleveland, it isn’t them.