It all started with what was supposed to be a chill vacation moment. Back in 2015, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union, LeBron James, and Chris Paul were just out on the water, enjoying their time off. That’s when the now-iconic “Banana Boat” incident happened—you know, the one where they’re all lined up on an inflatable banana, enjoying like there’s no tomorrow. And once that image hit the internet, it became a stuff of legends.

In fact, Wade once opened up about the whole story during an episode of Pardon My Take. “My wife wanted to go on a banana boat,” he said, recalling how it all began with Gabrielle Union’s suggestion. “So, Chris Paul, Bron, and I all got on a banana boat. Now, we were in the middle of nowhere, no one was supposed to know this but us,” Wade explained. “Someone took a photo from God knows where. No one was supposed to have seen us on a banana boat!” And yet, that one snapshot ended up being one of the most shared NBA images ever.

To make it even more hilarious, Wade joked about the way they looked in the photo. “First of all, if I knew they were taking a photo, we would have looked a little cooler.” And while Carmelo Anthony wasn’t in the shot, Wade confirmed he was also part of that vacation and might’ve joined them if he’d arrived earlier. So yeah, the full Banana Boat squad was almost there.

Fast forward a decade, and Wade still can’t escape it. Just recently, Fanatics posted a video of him at an event where someone actually rolled out a real banana boat, just so D-Wade could sign it. It clearly caught him off guard, but he kept his cool with a smile, probably thinking back to that wild moment.

And even though he went along with it and signed the boat “for the gang,” here’s the real twist—Wade never wanted to get on that banana boat in the first place.

Dwyane Wade’s fear comes true

Back when the Banana Boat picture first surfaced, most fans just saw four NBA legends having fun. Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Gabrielle Union—all smiles on an inflatable banana, doing the ultimate spring break move. Wade, however, says it should never have happened. In fact, he once admitted in an interview with Rachel Nichols, “I never wanted to be on that stupid boat anyway.”

When Nichols asked if he ever imagined the photo would follow him for the rest of his career, Wade didn’t hold back. “I did not,” he said. He then doubled down on how reluctant he was in the first place: “And all I know is that I did not want to get on that banana boat! I remember saying ‘guys I didn’t wanna get on there’ but you know, peer pressure, on vacation, and then I’m like alright… and then picture surfaced, and I’m like ‘SEE! This is why I didn’t wanna get on the banana boat.” Clearly, his instincts were on point.

Interestingly, Gabrielle Union had tried to reassure him at the time. She told him: “No one is going to see this.” Safe to say, that didn’t age well.

Since the incident, LeBron has dismissed the photo as a fake, a photoshopped image; however, Paul sported it on a t-shirt. But Carmelo Anthony took it deeper, saying, “We’re more than a banana boat. This is a true friendship.” Still, for Wade—that one silly moment? It became the meme that never left.