Carmelo Anthony says he almost joined Rockets: 'A deal was done' but fell apart

Anthony said he isn't really sure what happened behind the scenes that caused the deal to fall apart

Throughout the summer, as Carmelo Anthony languished in New York, everyone assumed it was just a matter of time before he was a member of the Houston Rockets. Especially with the saga between him and the Knicks getting stranger by the day.

Houston was originally the only team he would waive his no-trade clause for, and with a return to the Knicks far too awkward to imagine, the NBA world expected a deal would eventually get done. One did, but it sent Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder, as the All-Star forward eventually expanded the list of teams he'd agree to be dealt to. 

As it turns it, however, Anthony was indeed very close to being a Rocket. Anthony himself spilled the beans, telling SiriusXM NBA Radio on Thursday that "a deal was done with Houston early," but eventually it fell apart, which led to him finally accepting the reality of being traded somewhere else. 

Anthony's full answer, as transcribed by Uproxx:

"I think it was within the last week, week and a half before training camp," Anthony said when asked about when he opened his list up. "A deal was done with Houston early. Then for some reason, whatever happened behind the scenes it didn't go through, it didn't fall through. Then we really had to pay attention and think about other options. Believe it or not, I felt like I was going to be back in training camp and show up at media day in New York. Me and my team sat down Friday night and was like, 'Let's prepare for going back to media day on Monday and training camp that week.'

Then we got the call and they said, 'Would you open it up to OKC.' And I was like, 'Yeah.' At this point, yeah. I don't think it would've been beneficial for me to come back to media day after everything that had gone on in the offseason. For me to have to deal with that it would've been unfair for the organization, the Knicks to deal with that. It would've been too much noise, too many questions to answer and I don't think either party wanted to deal with that."

Shortly after the Thunder deal was completed, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Knicks and Rockets were not able to come to terms on a trade. The Rockets wanted to shed Ryan Anderson's contract, while the Knicks were not interested in that, and instead had eyes on Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza. 

Perhaps at one point one of the two sides temporarily decided to budge from their entrenched stance, but then decided against it. There's also the possibility that the potential deal Anthony was referring to was a three-team trade involving the Rockets and someone else, but the assuredly complicated negotiations broke down. 

Whatever the case, Anthony is now a member of the Thunder, and he'll have a tough task ahead as he tries to help OKC try and unseat the Golden State Warriors from their Western Conference throne.