MIAMI -- LeBron James welcomes the New Jersey Nets and the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the NBA, and said that he never intended to advocate contraction in recent comments he made about the league's "watered down" talent level compared to the 1980s.

"That's crazy, because I had no idea what the word 'contraction' meant before I saw it on the Internet," James said after the Miami Heat's practice Monday. "I never even mentioned that. That word never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how the league was back in the '80s and how it could be good again. I never said, 'Let's take some of the teams out.' "

James found himself Monday in a position of yet again having to clarify some controversial comments. On Thursday, he told reporters before the Heat's game against the Phoenix Suns that he would like to see more stars playing together instead of them being spread out throughout the league.

He also made specific references to the Nets and Timberwolves, including promising forward Kevin Love, in reference to the number of premier players toiling along with struggling teams. James was portrayed in some reports as advocating contraction and the loss of NBA jobs at a time when the league and players' association are haggling over a new collective bargaining agreement.

James, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday, said he was speaking only in hypothetical terms when he suggested what it might be like to remove Love, the league's leading rebounder, from the struggling Timberwolves, or to see some of the Nets' better players on teams that could contend for a championship.

"Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]," James said Thursday. "Looking at some of the teams that aren't that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren't that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."

Several players and league officials fired back in disagreement with James.

Nets coach Avery Johnson, who was part of the recruiting contingent that made a failed pitch to James in free agency last summer, also disagreed with James' notion that having a handful of teams loaded with star players would be a good thing for the NBA.

"Maybe the league would be better if we didn't have three stars on one team," Johnson said in a veiled reference to the Heat's trio of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

"I didn't see his first comment and I didn't see the clarification," Johnson later said. "I just heard about it. I'm not even really interested. Like I said earlier, I think I mentioned it on our conference call [yesterday], it is what it is. I like the league the way it is and we'll keep moving from there."

Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher, president of the players' association, said James' comments were "surprising" but that he did not know if the two-time MVP's stance would "necessarily hurt our case."