NBA legends Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade revealed on Wade’s podcast that Paul was almost traded to the Miami Heat to play with Wade and LeBron James.
LeBron joined the Heat in the summer of 2010 to play with Wade and Chris Bosh.
Meanwhile, Paul was traded by the New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Clippers before the 2011-12 lockout season.
Both Wade and Paul wore No. 3 and neither star wanted to give that number up.
The Heat went to four straight Finals during the LeBron-Wade-Bosh era and won two championships.
Meanwhile, Paul never got past the second round of the playoffs with the Clippers. He spent six seasons in Los Angeles before getting traded to the Houston Rockets in the summer of 2017.
Wade won three championships with the Heat. The first title came in 2006. Miami defeated the Dallas Mavericks, with Wade winning Finals MVP. The other two rings came in 2012 and 2013 when Wade was teammates with LeBron and Bosh.
After winning two titles with the Heat, LeBron went back to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2014. The King guided the Cavaliers to the 2016 championship over the 73-9 Golden State Warriors. Cleveland is the only team in NBA history to erase a 3-1 series deficit in the Finals.
LeBron signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018. He won his fourth championship in 2020. The Chosen One is the only player in NBA history to win three Finals MVPs with three different franchises.
As for Paul, he has yet to win a championship. He came close in 2021 with the Phoenix Suns, but the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Suns in the Finals in six games.
Wade was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023. Paul and LeBron will be Hall of Famers one day.
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