LeBron James is preparing for an emotional return to Cleveland as a member of the visiting team on Thursday night.

He was asked on Tuesday whether he'd eventually like to see his jersey hanging in the rafters at Quicken Loans Arena.

"Wow. Of course," James said. "If that's something that organization and franchise would do, I'm all respectful of that. I just tried to be the best player I could be every night, whether I was in that Cavalier uniform, that USA uniform. If that results in me having my jersey retired that would be great."

James added that he'll be ready for whatever response he receives when the Heat battle the Cavaliers in Cleveland later this week.

"I'm ready for whatever response I'm going to get," James said. "It's going to be very emotional. I give a lot of thanks to that city, a lot of thanks to those fans for giving me the opportunity to not only showcase my talent, but to grow from a young boy to a man during my seven years. So it's going to be very emotionally draining. I can tell already."