During their time with the Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James appear to have been close to teaming up with Chris Paul, but the deal was called off due to a minor dispute.

On a recent episode of Wade’s podcast, “The Why with Dwyane Wade,” the Heat veteran and Paul discussed their behind-the-scenes chats with James, which almost landed Paul in Miami.

However, a disagreement over who would wear No. 3 – Wade’s number during his Hall of Fame tenure in Miami and the number Paul based his “CP3” brand on – derailed the transaction.

A trade involving Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Paul for the Miami Heat was ruled out due to a jersey number.

“Do you recall the call between you, Bron, and me? Do you recall us getting on the phone?” Wade asked Paul.

“We were talking about me coming to Miami,” Paul explained. “We were discussing who would hold the ball in their hands and how it would function. So who was it? Was it CJ who mentioned who was going to wear number three?

“Bro, that’s what I wanted to get to,” Wade remarked. “We discuss everything, including who will have the ball and how we will all play together; no CP can have the ball. We have figured it all out. And then somebody replied, “Well, who’s going to wear number three?” Silence. The entire transaction was ruined when CP was unable to wear number three in Miami.

On the pod, the two exchanged ideas about alternative solutions. Paul believed Wade could alter his number to 33 because he was older.

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

He replied, “I know but cuz you’re older than me, you could just wear 33.”

Could Paul wear a different number? That did not appear to be an option, according to Paul.

“What are we going to do?” “CP6, no, that isn’t it,” Paul replied.

“That ended the whole conversation,” Wade added. “When I first heard that question, I was thinking, ‘What are you talking about? Simply obtain another number. And CP was like, no. The entire exchange was based on a jersey number.

Eventually, the issue over the jersey number derailed the deal, and the Heat never traded for Paul. It appears Paul, Wade, and James had everything planned out on the court – Paul would run the offence and James and Wade would play off of him – but couldn’t agree on who would 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 told reporters.

“We talked for a while, too,” Paul added. “We talked about what the team would look like, and then CJ sat over there and asked, ‘What number are you going to wear?'” What number am I going to wear? “What number will he wear?”

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