Stephen A. Smith announced on Friday morning that he would be sitting down for an interview with former Houston Rockets forward Carmelo Anthony.
When the two sat down, Anthony finally cleared the air on what went down with the Rockets when he was traded to the Chicago Bulls, only to be waived less than two weeks later. "I was surprised by it big-time," he said. "For three, four years they were trying to get me to come to the Houston Rockets, and when I finally went there they said, 'Okay, this is the piece that we need.' So I get there, and I'm thinking everything is going to be good, I'm doing everything I gotta do. Never missed a practice, did all my work."
10 games into his Rockets tenure, Melo says he reached out to Rockets GM Daryl Morey over confusion about his place in the team. He approached Morey, and learned that Morey was planning on releasing Melo from his contract. "I didn't like how that went down," he explained. "He came in and he was just like, 'Look, basically your service is no longer needed.'"
Melo also talked about his plan to sign with the Bulls instead of the Knicks in 2014. But after he heard "whispers behind the scenes," he decided not to sign with Chicago.
Melo also addressed the idea of a possible farewell tour. While he wasn't on the court for most of 2019, it would appear as though he's not ready to leave basketball behind just yet. "I never even thought about a farewell tour," he said. "I've thought about this being my last year, but that was at the time I was really emotionally vulnerable," he added. "Now, I feel like I can still play. I know that I can still play! My peers know that I can still play. I don't think it's about basketball anymore, I think it's about me as a person willing to accept certain roles on a basketball team. Am I willing to accept a certain role on a basketball team? Yes."
Throughout all the recent turmoil, Melo admitted that he felt as though he didn't want to play anymore. "At that point in time, I was like, 'I don't wanna do this no more,'" he told Stephen A. Smith. "I felt like the game didn't love me back at that point. [...] Now, I love the game too much to be away from it."
One of the factors luring him back is his desire to win a championship. "That's the only thing left for me to do, to win a championship," he continued. "But I also want to play, I want to get back on the court. I miss the game. [...] I deserve another shot!
Melo also responded to Chauncey Billups' recent comments that he was too obsessed with scoring 30 points a game.
Despite his desire to play again, it was recently reported that NBA insiders believe that Carmelo Anthony's NBA future is "in serious doubt."
