Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade shared the back story of how the Big 3 Heat came about. We all know that in the summer of 2010, Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, three players from the 2003 NBA Draft Class, converged in Miami and signed to play for the Heat.

But as Wade told during his recent appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast, he and LeBron first agreed that summer that they would team up. Once word got out that they would do so, the Heat received feelers from a couple of stars who wanted to become their third star.

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“Once people got a little inside (info) that we were thinking about playing together, we got a couple of calls. So we get calls from… Amar’e was a free agent, Boozer was a free agent,” said Wade.

The Heat had other options for that third star role

Stoudemire had played his entire career for the Phoenix Suns up to that point. But after contract extensions hit a stalemate and the Suns signed big men Hakim Warrick and Channing Frye, STAT was looking for a new home. Because he was pals with D-Wade, he tried to bring his act to South Beach.

Boozer meanwhile was LeBron’s former teammate in Cleveland. He left the Cavs in the 2004 free agency and spent his next six years with the Utah Jazz. But his stay in Utah was injury-plagued and he clashed with management on a couple of instances so he was looking for another home. According to Wade, it was James who talked to Boozer during this time.

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“And so we had to look if those personalities and those talents if it obviously worked with us because I think, it was ‘Bron and I who were committed to playing together. Once we committed to playing together, it was really important who that third person was. And we knew all along that we were going to do this, that Chris Bosh was the choice,” added Wade.

CB ended up as the most significant star on the Heat

The decision turned out to be the right one. As former Heat forward Udonis Haslem said, Bosh became the most important player on that team because his play style and strengths differed from what Wade and James brought to the tale.

“Everybody thinks our most important player was ‘Bron,” said Haslem. “Our most important player, not our best player, was CB. “If ‘Bron went down, you could bring in D-Wade, and it’s not the same player, but you’re gonna get similar results of what you’re going to get out of the player – making plays, he can go for 30. We couldn’t simulate it; we didn’t have another CB. If that MF, went down and he got hurt, we didn’t have another one of those.”

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With the Big 3 of Wade, James, and Bosh, the Heat made four straight trips to the NBA Finals and won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013. However, after they lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 NBA Finals, LeBron returned to Cleveland to fulfill a promise.

Related: Carmelo Anthony on why he joined Knicks over Miami Big Three: “For one, I was a little uneducated”