The Carmelo Anthony experiment in Houston officially came to an end today, as the Houston Rockets traded the 10-time All Star (as well as draft rights to Jon Diebler and $1.56 million) to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for draft rights to Tadija Dragicevoc.
Anthony is expected to be waived by Chicago, but ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Bulls could wait until the February 7 trade deadline to do so. As the situation continues to unfold, Melo's former teammate, James Harden, says he just wants to see him happy and hooping again.
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"I just want to see him hoop, see him happy, and I mean, he deserves it, honestly," Harden told reporters of Anthony's situation on Tuesday. "Like, he's put so much time and effort into this game that he should be able to hoop and still have fun playing the game of basketball."
"Yeah, man. Melo is one of the best to ever hoop. He loves the game of basketball," Harden said. "Some guys just do it just because they're gifted or they're athletic or they can shoot the basketball. There's not that many players that like, love to hoop. ... It kind of sucks that it didn't work out. It is what it is. I just hope he finds somewhere where they can embrace him and he can still hoop. So he [gets to] make that decision that he's done [playing]."
Anthony appeared in just 10 games for the Rockets this season, averaging 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds on 40.5% shooting along the way. Once he finally becomes a free agent, it is believed that the Los Angeles Lakers will be among the teams interested in signing him.