Former New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony says a deal with the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers was in place but fell through.

The New York Knicks wanted to trade Carmelo Anthony to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Tristan Thompson and a possible draft pick. However, a deal to make that happen fell through at the last minute.

According to Ian Begley of ESPN, Anthony told SiriusXM radio on Thursday that a deal with the Houston Rockets was in place on draft night. The deal would have sent Melo and Paul George to the Cavaliers.

“I think it was within the last week, week and a half, before training camp. A deal was done with Houston early, then for some reason, whatever happened behind the scenes, it didn’t go through,” he told SiriusXM radio. “It fell through, then we had to really start paying attention and thinking about other options.”

Melo was ready to be with the Knicks to start the season but when the team asked if he would add the Oklahoma City Thunder to the list of teams that he would accept a trade to, he decided it was time to move on.

“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,” he said. “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.”

The 10-time All-Star was traded to the Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and the Chicago Bulls’ 2018 second-round draft pick. The Thunder open the season on Oct. 19 against who else but the New York Knicks.