Carmelo Anthony says that a deal was done with the Houston Rockets

Carmelo Anthony thought that a deal was done with the Houston Rockets, but somehow it fell through.

After securing Chris Paul, it was a long summer for Houston Rockets fans.

The Carmelo Anthony drama seemed to pour in like a reality tv show, and no one knew the date of the finale.

The Rockets and Knicks couldn’t come up with a deal, but everyone thought that the two sides would strike an agreement eventually. Even Carmelo Anthony did.

In an interview with Sirius XM, Melo said that a deal sending him to the Rockets was all but done, via ESPN’s Ian Begley.

“A deal was done with Houston early then for some reason whatever happened behind the scenes it didn’t go through, it fell through then we had to really start paying attention and thinking about other options.”

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Knicks wanted a package centered around Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza, but the Rockets refused that deal. Houston needed to move Ryan Anderson in order to make the Melo trade work financially. Unfortunately, the Knicks didn’t want Anderson either. And thus the stalemate continued.

Related Story: Houston Rockets: Why letting Carmelo Anthony go was a good move

Carmelo didn’t want to return to the Knicks’ Media Day last Monday because of all of the drama that occurred in the offseason. At that point, Melo became more open to the possibility of playing for another team outside of the Rockets. Oklahoma City called to see if Carmelo was interested, and the rest is history.

The Rockets didn’t lose in the Melo sweepstakes.

Later in the interview, Carmelo said that he and Paul George were nearly traded to Cleveland on draft night. Apparently the deal was done, but it was called off at the last moment. This goes to show how much works goes into trading NBA players, especially for the superstars.

Ariza, Gordon and any other assets would have been a lot to give up for Anthony, who is 33 years old. The Rockets still had one of the best off seasons in the NBA, and they’ll finish with one of the best records in the league.

Next: The Houston Rockets are still better than the Thunder

The top of the Western Conference has definitely gotten a lot more crowded, but Houston still has a deeper roster than the Thunder. The Rockets will face Oklahoma City in the first game of the preseason on Oct. 3. It should be fun!