Knicks assured LeBron hasn't made up his mind

There was no summit, there has been nothing decided and there is no done deal.

That's the message sent to the Knicks Tuesday through backchannel connections with the top players - especially LeBron James - who will be on the market when the NBA's free-agency period opens Thursday, a person with knowledge of the situation told Newsday last night.

Rumors fueled by wildly inconsistent national media reports over the last few days have placed James with the Bulls and Heat, and the Knicks are said to be nowhere in the conversation.

After a long two years of planning and clearing salary-cap space, a contingent of Knicks officials finally will meet with James Thursday afternoon in suburban Akron, Ohio, and find out for themselves if he has any real interest in having the Garden stage for himself.

It's obvious that the Knicks don't want to waste their time, however, if James already has made up his mind to go elsewhere, as the reports suggest. That is part of the reason why the team is planning to open the free-agency season Wednesday night by meeting with Joe Johnson in Los Angeles. The team also may talk with Amar'e Stoudemire, who will be in Los Angeles, as well.

It's too dangerous for the Knicks to devote too much time and energy on a fruitless endeavor when they instead could focus elsewhere and James knows it. That's why there were assurances sent to the Knicks as recently as Tuesday. "He's undecided," the person said. "He's going to meet with teams, he's going to listen and he's going to make a decision from there."

There was a report by ESPN that said James met with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh this past weekend to discuss teaming up with the Heat, who don't have enough cap space to offer all three players max contracts. But it has been widely reported - and confirmed by Newsday - that James was in Manhattan on Saturday and at a Chelsea club early Sunday morning. Wade's agent, Henry Thomas, denied the meetings took place, saying Wade wasn't even in Miami over the weekend.

Then Tuesday, in the midst of rumors of a dispute within James' inner-circle of advisers, which is believed to include well-known basketball power broker William "Worldwide Wes" Wesley, James' business partner, Maverick Carter, told The New York Times that Wesley would not be part of any meetings with teams or the decision process. "Wes has nothing to do with where [James] goes," Carter said.

Wesley had most of the league convinced that he would be a conduit to delivering James. The Knicks have reached out to Wesley in the past - he assisted them in setting up Eddy Curry's offseason conditioning program last summer - and team officials maintained a relationship with him. But the team also has developed a strong relationship with Carter and believes that Carter would be upfront with them if James wasn't at all considering the Knicks.

In fact, Knicks officials seem more skeptical of Wade's interest in paying a visit Friday. Wade has said his preference would be to remain in Miami and already has tried to recruit other free agents, such as Bosh, James, Johnson and Stoudemire, to join him there. One team official thinks that Wade may not have gotten any assurances from other free agents and, therefore, is covering all his bases.

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Knicks, Rangers, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.

The Knicks' cross-country free-agent hunt

Wednesday: Los Angeles

Knicks and Garden officials are expected to fly the corporate jet to Los Angeles, where free agents Joe Johnson and Amar'e Stoudemire are expected to be headquartered. At 9:01 p.m. (Pacific time), when the NBA's free-agency season officially begins (12:01 a.m. ET) a call will be made to Johnson's agent, Arn Tellem, to arrange an immediate meeting. Stoudemire, who is represented by Santa Monica, Calif.-based Happy Walters, could be included in the meeting or could be met with separately afterward.

Thursday: Akron, Ohio

The Knicks contingent will then fly to northeast Ohio for a scheduled 1 p.m. (ET) meeting with LeBron James and his group of advisers at an undisclosed location outside of Akron.

Friday: New York City

The whirlwind tour continues back home with a busy day of scheduled meetings with two more top free agents, starting with Chris Bosh in the afternoon and followed by Dwyane Wade in the evening.