What number you wear as a player is something sacred to many. While there are some who certainly pick one arbitrarily, for most there is a deeper meaning behind it — and for many stars, they build their entire personal branding around it.
Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade shared a number that is permanently associated with them, as they both wore the No. 3 for almost the entirety of their careers (Wade briefly wore 9 in Cleveland). Paul built his brand around being CP3 and Wade’s No. 3 now resides in the rafters in Miami, and that is apparently a big reason why a trade to bring Paul to Miami fell through during the Heat’s Big 3 era.
On Dwyane Wade’s “The Why” podcast, Paul and Wade recalled having deep conversations about what the Heat would look like with Paul, Wade, and LeBron James. They had gotten so far down the road that they’d figured out how it all would work on the court, but then Paul’s brother C.J. brought up the question of who would wear No. 3 that stopped everything dead in its tracks. They both agreed that was the moment the trade possibility fell apart, which is a truly wild thing to happen.
CP3 almost joined Heatles but him and Wade both wanted to wear #3
“We talked for a while, what the team would look like, we were getting excited”
“Riley didn’t pull the trigger because CP wasn’t wearing number 3 in Miami”
“I was almost in Miami, whole trade over jersey #”
pic.twitter.com/bbarJFFNYy
— Emo Jimmy (@WheelerJaylen) February 28, 2024
It’s clear that the whole thing is much funnier to Wade than it is Paul, which isn’t surprising considering Wade won two more rings with LeBron while Paul is still on a seemingly Sisyphean quest for his first. As such, Paul might have a bit more regret about the whole thing in hindsight, as he ultimately ended up with the Clippers, who never fulfilled their promise as a team, falling short of the conference finals each year.
It’s especially funny learning that a number blew up the trade when LeBron changed numbers in order to be on the Heat, going to No. 6, but Paul couldn’t do the same. Now, I certainly think we’re missing some information from the front office side in New Orleans and Miami about how close an actual trade was, but the way these two talk about it, it might as well have been a done deal had they been able to figure out the number situation.