BOSTON, Massachusetts (AFP) — The Miami Heat’s vaunted “Big Three” were the big attraction yesterday as they prepared to face the Boston Celtics on the opening day of the NBA season.

Two-time Most Valuable Player LeBron James was the subject of scrutiny hours before game time, with video cameras hovering as he iced his knee after the Heat’s morning shoot-around.

“I feel like a fish in a fish tank,” said James, who wasn’t scheduled to talk to reporters until shortly before the evening game. “How fast can he swim?”

For James, who made the jump from Cleveland as a free agent along with Toronto’s Chris Bosh to join Miami’s Dwyane Wade in a superstar trio, the season-opener at Boston is a return to the scene of bitter disappointment.

The Celtics won the Eastern Conference title last year after dispatching the Cavaliers here in the conference semi-finals.

Despite the Celtics’ status as reigning conference champs, it was the Heat — and James, Bosh and Wade in particular — attracting the huge media contingent and driving up the price of game tickets on resale sites on the internet.

Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said some 500 journalists had received credentials for the contest, four times the normal number.

“You don’t usually see this many cameras unless you’re in the finals,” Wade commented. “And it’s the first game of the season.”

Wade, Bosh and James played together just three minutes during the pre-season before Wade strained his right hamstring in the October 5 exhibition opener. He returned to practice on Saturday.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra noted that the three stars had played together plenty — at the 2006 World Championships and again at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where they helped the United States win gold.

“I think it will be easy with these guys,” he said. “It’s not their first rodeo.”

Miami fans have wasted no time in adopting James, but the resentment is still simmering back in Cleveland, where a radio host hired a witch doctor to try to hex James and his new team.

He broadcast a ceremony yesterday, saying he was using bones, blood and a James jersey.

Spoelstra said such antics wouldn’t affect the Heat, nor will the massive expectations of adoring fans.