Heat: Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul recall phone call with LeBron James that nixed team-up

The Miami Heat trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh achieved so much during their time together in South Beach. But they could have achieved more if star point guard Chris Paul joined them. There was already a discussion of Paul taking his talents as well to Miami, with Wade and CP3 recently recalling a call with James back in 2011 about the potential of making that blockbuster trade happen (via The Why with Dwyane Wade presented by iHeartPodcasts and 59th & Prairie Entertainment).

“Do you remember the call with Bron, you, and I when we were thinking about, when (Pat) Riley wanted to trade to bring you to Miami,” Wade said.

“Absolutely I remember, I was sitting in my condo and CJ was sitting on the couch right go back to my brother always there and we was talking me coming to Miami, we was talking about who’s going to have the ball in there hands, how its going to work,” Paul responded.

But during that call, as Wade and Paul remembered, the number issue was brought up. Since Wade wore No. 3 and so does Paul to this day, there was a discussion to be had about who would have that number in the event that Paul got traded to the Heat.

“Yep we was having the conversation and then, who was it, was it CJ [Paul's brother] that said something about who's going to wear number 3,” asked Paul.

“Bro that’s what I wanted to get to, we talk about all this who’s going to handle the ball, okay we can all play together, CP I can play off the ball, airing all that out, and somebody said but who’s going to wear number 3? silence… that’s the whole trade because CP couldn’t wear number 3 in Miami, messed the whole trade up, responded Wade.”

Chris Paul to Heat is one of the biggest NBA What Ifs

Even though a trade that would have sent the future Hall of Fame point guard to the Heat did not materialize, Miami still managed to win multiple titles with the stars they had at the time.

Paul, meanwhile, is still in pursuit of an NBA title that continues to be elusive for the 12-time NBA All-Star and four-time All-NBA First Team.