Report: Heat and Cavaliers expect to know LeBron James' decision in next few days

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Despite conspiracies and proclamations to the contrary, LeBron James did not announce where he will play the 2014-15 season and beyond on Thursday night.

Considering James hadn't committed to announcing a decision by then, and that none of the heavy hitting basketball insiders said as much, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Still, the basketball world waits on pins and needles.

The degree to which James' process is messing up the free agent landscape is quite interesting. 

Chris Bosh has a standing offer from the Houston Rockets but prefers to play with James in Miami if that's possible. Meanwhile, the Rockets have until only Sunday to decide whether to match an offer for restricted free agent Chandler Parsons, after which they wouldn't have the money to bring in Bosh. The idea of Bosh leaving is a dark-horse reason that Carmelo Anthony may be delaying his own decision, perhaps holding out hope that he can slide into Bosh's place in Miami. 

All the while, Pau Gasol, Mike Miller, Ray Allen and the entire second and third tiers of free agents wait for the big dominoes to fall so that teams feel comfortable proceeding with their Plan Bs and Plan Cs.

Oh, and James' decision will also determine where the best player in the world will play next season, making almost any team an instant title contender. There's a lot riding on this, obviously.

Multiple reports have James set to fly from Las Vegas to Miami shortly, after which he'll head to Brazil for the World Cup final. Dwyane Wade is expected to be with him on the flight to Miami, for whatever that's worth (the two have been spotted together plenty in Vegas this week). This was said to be James' plan for some time, separate from his free agency, as he was hosting a basketball camp in Vegas this week and the World Cup final is the World Cup final.

An announcement could certainly come before Argentina and Ger,any square off for soccer supremacy, perhaps on Friday from Miami, but there's a non-zero chance James turns the entire basketball world quiet over the weekend. With that said, both the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers are expecting to hear his decision before he heads to Rio de Janeiro.

At least one thing is certain with all of this, however: people will continue to be really, really irrational until he puts pen to paper.