Dwyane Wade reveals insane reason why Chris Paul never joined him and LeBron on the Miami Heat

It seems Dwyane Wade and LeBron James nearly teamed up with Chris Paul during their days together with the Miami Heat, but the trade was nullified over a minor dispute.

On a recent episode of Wade’s podcast, “The Why with Dwyane Wade,” the Heat legend and Paul recalled the behind-the-scenes conversations between them and James that nearly landed Paul in Miami.

However, a conflict over who would wear No. 3 – which was Wade’s number for his Hall of Fame career in Miami as well as the number Paul built his “CP3” brand around – sunk the trade.

A trade that would have teamed up Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Paul on the Miami Heat was shot down because of a jersey number.

“Do you remember the call with you, Bron and I? Do you remember us getting on the phone?” Wade asked Paul.

“We was talking about me coming to Miami,” Paul replied. “We was talking about who was gonna have the ball in their hands, how it’s going to work. Then who was it? Was it CJ who said something about who was going to wear number three?”

“Bro, that’s what I wanted to get to,” Wade said. “We talk about all of this, who gonna have the ball, how we’re all going to play together, no CP can have the ball. We done figured all that out. And then somebody said ‘Well who gon’ wear number three?’ Silence. Messed the whole trade up because CP couldn’t wear number three in Miami, messed the whole trade up.”

The two went back and forth on the pod about other proposed solutions. Paul thought Wade could change his number to 33 because he was older.

“I wasn’t older,” Wade said. “I was prime! I was in my prime.”

Replied Paul: “I know but cuz you’re older than me, you could just wear 33.”

Could Paul wear another number? That didn’t seem to be an option, according to Paul.

“What are we gonna do? CP6, no that ain’t it,” Paul said.

“That ended the whole conversation,” Wade said. “I remember when that question was posed I was like ‘What are you talking about? Just get another number.’ And CP was like no. Whole trade, all because of a jersey number.”

Eventually, the dispute over the jersey number sank the deal and the Heat never traded for Paul. It seems Paul, Wade and James had everything worked out on the court – that Paul would run the offense and James and Wade would play off of him – but couldn’t come to a resolution on who would get to wear No. 3.

“I’m saying [Pat] Riley didn’t pull the trigger because CP wasn’t going to be able to wear number three in Miami,” Wade said.

“We talked for a while, too,” Paul said. “We talked about what the team would look like, all this different type stuff and then it was CJ sitting over there and he goes, ‘What number are you gon’ wear?’ What number am I gon’ wear? What number is he going to wear?”

“D-Wade wanted to sacrifice everything else,” Paul continued, “he didn’t want to sacrifice a damn number, let me tell you.”