The 35-year-old has already featured at three Olympic Games, earning bronze at Athens 2004 and gold at Beijing 2008 and London 2012. 

He did not play at Rio 2016, however, withdrawing after completing a long National Basketball Association (NBA) season that year. 

As reported by BasketballNews, James revealed he wants to play at his fourth Olympics next year.

"I was told he wants to plan on being able to play, but no one can totally commit under these circumstances," said USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo.

James, currently for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals against Miami Heat, may be unable to compete at Tokyo 2020 with the schedule for the 2020-2021 NBA season still uncertain. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019-2020 NBA season is ongoing,

Despite the 2020-2021 season having a tentative start date of December 1, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said his "best guess" would be that the league will restart in January.

This would result in a potential clash between the NBA Finals and Tokyo 2020 next year. 

The Games have themselves been impacted by the pandemic, with the Olympics pushed back by a year to be scheduled for July 23 to August 8.

Team USA will hope to have James play as he is  widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history.

His accomplishments include three NBA Championships, four NBA most valuable player (MVP) awards and three Finals MVP awards.

James holds the record for playoffs points, is third in all-time points, and eighth in all-time assists.   

He could be heading for a fourth NBA Championships title with the Lakers having beaten in the Heat 116-98 in the opening game of the seven match playoff.