Carmelo Anthony is opening up about all of the rumored trades that nearly went down before the New York Knicks agreed to send him to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for center Enes Kanter, forward Doug McDermott and the Chicago Bulls' 2018 second round pick.
According to Melo, a deal was in place for him to be traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers on draft night, along with his now OKC-teammate, Paul George. Of course, the trade never went through and he ended up with George on his squad anyway, it's just that now they're in Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook.
Carmelo explained during a SiriusXM radio this morning, per Ian Begley of ESPN.com,
"Me and PG have a very close friendship," Anthony said during a SiriusXM interview, per Ian Begley of ESPN.com. "Actually, it was funny because me and PG was supposed to be in Cleveland on draft night. We were communicating about that. The deal was actually done and it got called off on draft night, so me and PG stayed connected throughout the course of the season."
And that's not the only deal that was "done" before the Knicks finally traded Carmelo to the Thunder.
The 33-year old All-Star forward also says a deal was done with the Houston Rockets, which would've partnered him up with Chris Paul and James Harden, but for "some reason" it fell apart.
Via the New York Daily News' Frank Isola,
"A deal was done with Houston," Anthony said, before adding for "some reason … it didn't go through."
It's unclear why both deals were "done" and ultimately got nixed but Carmelo still found a way to link up with two All-Star players on a team that is in the NBA title conversation.
Carmelo is expected to start at the power forward position in OKC, which is something he talked about during the team's Media Day earlier this week.
He told reporters, per ESPN,
"I've been playing the 4 almost all my career," Anthony told reporters. "Even in Denver, we was one of those teams with George Karl, kinda started going playing that small ball, putting me at the 4, picking up the pace. We kind of started that. And the league wasn't ready for that at that time. It was all about traditional bigs and power forwards and centers. And now, it's just whoever."