The hottest star in sports is so big some people actually spell his name correctly now. Believe it or not, Dwyane Wade has reached that level of superstardom. That’s D-W-Y-A-N-E.

He’s a bigger star than Tim Duncan, whose name is spelled B-O-R-I-N-G. Bigger than Barry Bonds, whose name is spelled S-T-E-R-O-I-D-S, Bigger than Peyton Manning, who can’t spell S-U-P-E-R B-O-W-L. Bigger than Albert Pujols, whose physique has made some aloud wonder whether he knows how to spell H-G-H. Bigger, for the moment at least, than Tiger Woods, who last weekend spelled U.S. Open C-U-T. Bigger, even, than Tom Brady, who has more rings, yet not as much flash.

Tom Richardson, now an assistant coach at Vanderbilt University and then the head coach at Illinois State, remembers when Wade wasn’t such a big name, so under the radar Richardson nearly landed him, finishing second to Marquette.

I wondered if Richardson ever allowed himself to think about what might have been.

“You mean like I’d be coaching at Illinois right now?” he said by phone. “Sure, I think about it.”

Richardson said he thought he still had a nice full-page, typed letter Wade wrote to him, thanking him for recruiting him. (Can you spell eBay, Tom?)

“He’s unbelievable,” said Richardson, who watched the series on TV. “Nice kid. Unassuming kid. Humble. Comes from nothing in Robbins (Ill.). Just as nice as can be. I hope he can stay as humble as he’s always been. It would be very hard with all that’s going on in his life.”

Tim Buckley, now an assistant coach to Steve Alford at Iowa after losing his head-coaching job at Ball State, was an assistant to Marquette coach Tom Crean and was the first one on the staff tipped off about Wade. Buckley knows how to spell D-W-Y-A-N-E. He does now, anyway.

“When we went on Dwyane’s home visit, his high school coach was there and so was Darlene, Dwyane’s future mother-in-law,” Buckley said. “You know how we all hand out fancy packets? Darlene started laughing and said, ‘Look at that. They misspelled your name.’ You know how your heart sinks in your stomach?”

Wade cruised under the recruiting radar in part because he was overshadowed by AAU teammate Darius Miles, who went directly to the NBA out of high school. His shaky academic record also played a part. If he had been a non-qualifier, he would have had to pay his own way to school, which would have given Illinois State the edge because Marquette would have been prohibitively expensive. Since he became a partial qualifier, he was able to accept a scholarship and practice with the team the first year, but wasn’t eligible for games.

Another factor: Wade and Odartey Blankson wanted to go to the same school. Richardson said he received a commitment from a player from Texas who played Blankson’s position, so he stopped recruiting Blankson, a two-year starter at Marquette before transferring to Nevada-Las Vegas. Word was, Blankson’s older brother, who remembered a time when his brother was better than Wade, convinced Blankson he was getting shafted because the offense was built around Wade. Pretty funny, huh? Shaquille O’Neal voiced no such complaint after Wade averaged 34.7 points and 7.8 rebounds in the NBA finals against the Dallas Mavericks.