Carmelo Anthony thought he had been traded twice before he actually was. It was wishful thinking.
During an interview on SiriusXM, Anthony said he was under the impression “a trade was in place’’ with Cleveland and “got called off” on draft night in which both he and Paul George were headed to the Cavaliers. It was unclear whom the Knicks or Pacers were getting back, but ESPN reported it was a five-team deal that fell through when no one wanted Kevin Love.
Anthony also said he was told by his reps earlier this summer “a deal was done’’ with Houston.
According to NBA sources, the Knicks say no deal was done with Houston, but his agents and the Rockets were pressing the Knicks hard to accept their offer, which included Ryan Anderson. The Knicks eventually pulled out of talks altogether as no other club was willing to take Anderson, and his long-term contract didn’t meet the club’s rebuilding plan.
“They were never close to a deal with Houston,’’ an NBA source said. “That’s a fact.’’
“I think it was within the last week, week and a half, before training camp,’’ Anthony said. “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. But then believe it or not I felt like I was going to be back in training camp, and I would show up to media day in New York.”
Mills and Perry guaranteed last Friday that Anthony would show up for media day Monday. Anthony revealed he sat with his reps that night and got a call from the Knicks saying they probably could do a deal with the Thunder if he gave the OK to add them to his wish list to go along with the Rockets, where talks had ceased for weeks.
“Me and my team sat down on Friday night and was like, ‘Man, we best prepare for going back to media day on Monday and training camp that week,’’’ Anthony said. “And then we got the call that said, ‘Would you open it up to OKC?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, at this point, yeah.’
“I don’t think it would have been beneficial for me to come back to media day after everything that was going on in the offseason. For me to have to deal with that, it would have been unfair for the organization, the Knicks, to have to deal with that. It would have been too much noise, too many questions to answer and I don’t think either party wanted to deal with that.”