Melo couldn't understand why the Rockets gave up on him after ten games: "You're telling me that I can't make a 10-man rotation"

Carmelo Anthony 's infamous short time on the Houston Rockets lasted only ten games. The reason for this is his unease when the team's general manager at the time, Daryl Morey, told him he would be out of the rotation. When Melo appeared on ESPN's First Take right after his departure, the 10-time All-Star talked about why he felt so disrespected by the Rockets organization.

" He [Morey] came in and basically said, 'Look, your services are no longer needed,'" Anthony said. "I was like, 'What? Hold up. What the hell are you talking about?'… "He told me I wasn't going to make the rotation," Anthony revealed. "I'm like, 'I can't make a nine-man rotation, that's what you're trying to tell me?' I'd already started to accept the fact that I've got to come off the bench, which was very hard for me, but I accepted that, and I moved on from that. But you're telling me that I can't make a 9- or 10-man rotation on this team? It's deeper than basketball. "

Carmelo felt betrayed

Anthony was surprised to hear Morey 's comments, given that he said they had been pining over him for four years. The original plan was for the Syracuse product to form a superteam with James Harden and Chris Paul, but the general manager wasn't happy with how the one-time scoring champion performed 10 games into the season. So, the Rockets coaching staff decided to replace Carmelo on the rotation with a better defensive option in Gary Clark.

Baltimore native averaged 13.4 points in 10 games for the Rockets, scored just 2 points on 1-11 in his last game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Perhaps this was Morey's tipping point because when the forward approached him to talk, Dan had already made up his mind regarding Anthony's status moving forward.

" I actually reached out to Daryl [Morey] first, and said, 'Can we talk about how we can make this better? What can we do to fix this? What can I do to fix this?' But then he had in mind that he wanted to come talk to me, too, about releasing me and letting me go. I didn't like how that went down ," Carmelo continued.

Related: Billups highlighted Anthony's biggest weakness: "Sometimes that meant too much to Melo"

Morey took the blame

In the same season, Dan took responsibility for how he handled Anthony's departure, feeling he could've been more professional. The general manager said that he and the team weren't happy with Carmelo to begin the year because he just couldn't fit in their defensive system, specifically the heavy use of switching defense. Rockets GM knew right off the bat that Anthony wasn't going to be happy with his decreased role, which was why he ripped the bandaid off right away.

"He can still really help a team," Morey told NBC Sports' Tom Haberstroh. "I think just how things evolved in terms of how we were using him. We thought, we really thought that was gonna work, and to be fair to Carmelo, I do really think he can help a team, and I think a team is gonna nab him here pretty shortly, is my guess."

Morey turned out to be wrong because Melo's stint on the Rockets was the last before he was away from the game for a year. Anthony's time with Houston was not only a wake-up call but, according to him, one of the lowest points of his career.

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