Gabby Union, Dwyane Wade, CP3, LeBron, & Melo make up the famed “Banana Boat Crew”. The photo, which spurned 2015 rumors the three superstars were looking to all join forces; has remained a yearly joke, as well as a reminder that they’ll always be linked in talks anytime they become a possibility to reach free-agency until they retire:
Dwyane recently sat down with Rachel Nichols and explained how the now-viral photo almost never happened:
That Dwyane Wade tried to get out of going on the banana boat in the first place just cracks me up ? pic.twitter.com/AuyoTi5wMG
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 29, 2017
Funny thing is, Wade was pretty apprehensive about the picture hitting the internet, but ironically it was Union who convinced him that no one would see the embarrassing flick.
Via GQ:
Being Mary Jane star Gabrielle Union unwittingly became part of one of this summer’s great memes when she, her husband Dwyane Wade, and NBA stars Chris Paul and LeBron James were all photographed riding a banana boat together. Since then, James has claimed he was photoshopped, Paul has acknowledged the photo in a tweet and then a t-shirt, while Wade has somehow escaped without a public comment.
Monday night, however, Union told Jimmy Fallon how the photograph came to be. As it turns out, everyone was a little nervous of being photographed on the boat, but Union was the uniting force, telling her husband and friends, “No one is going to see this.”
I still think LeBron was the funniest in the entire picture.