THE DECISION. THE title that Lebron James’ handlers gave the extraordinary one-hour, live programme on EPSN this summer – in which the NBA’s biggest name publicly turned away from his hometown club – was typically over-the-top.

But that decision – James left the trusty Cleveland Cavaliers for the sweet-scented Miami Heat – will have some seriously fun repercussions.

The basketball season begins in the US tonight with James and his Miami teammates visiting the white-hot Garden in Boston to face last season’s divisional champions the Boston Celtics.

It promises to be one of the most-watched regular season games in the league’s history.

The Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon writes of a side that added the talented Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to the side: “Not since Michael Jordan’s return to basketball in 1995 has a team generated so much fascination before playing its first game.”

This week, the Boston Herald’s Gerry Callahan auctioned off four tickets to tonight’s game on his radio show for charity. They sold for $11,200. “Give [LeBron] credit,” Callahan writes today.

“He lit a fire under this long, tedious NBA season, and his running buddies, Wade and Bosh, doused it with gasoline. And so tonight, a gray Tuesday in October, the Garden burns with Game 7-like excitement.”

While those in the arena offer the new-look championship favourites a New England welcome, those at home will see a new Nike advert featuring LeBron.

Sitting in a mock-up of the set from the ‘The Decision’ (even wearing an identical shirt), James takes pot shots at legends like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley (the donut is a reference to Barkley’s weight gain, for example).

He defends his much-maligned friends, alludes to his high-school roots and importantly admits  that the callous way he left the Cleveland Cavaliers on the ESPN special was, in his words, a mistake.

It’s superb. Someone at Nike deserves a pay rise.

Until the real action gets going, at last, tonight, it’s worth a watch: