One of the biggest what-ifs in NBA history is what the league would have looked like had one of its marquee players — perennial All-Star, Carmelo Anthony — signed with the Miami Heat or Chicago Bulls instead of the New York Knicks.

Had Carmelo decided not to sign a contract extension with the New York Knicks after they acquired him in a trade with the Denver Nuggets, he would have become a free agent in 2010. Subsequently, he would have had the option of teaming up with best friends LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in Miami.

Instead, his contract extension carried him through 2014, a summer that LeBron left the Heat to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Carmelo, having the opportunity to leave the Knicks, chose to re-sign with the Knicks.

At the time though, many thought Anthony would be signing with the Bulls, teaming up with the likes of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. According to Carmelo, who relayed on 2019 episode of First Take, the only reason that plans fell through was because of surprising intel (h/t Sports Illustrated’s Stephen Beslic.)

“I was going to Chicago. Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah. I was there, right? I was there. And then I started getting whispers behind the scenes. ‘Yo, look, this person ain’t gonna be there. It ain’t really right. This and that.’ And it was all of that started to come up in the midst of my decision-making. I wasn’t going to let anything cloud that.”

However, the intel that Anthony received may have been wrong. While mainstay Luol Deng was traded during the 2013-14 season, players like Noah, Kirk Hinrich, Mike Dunleavy and Taj Gibson remained in Chicago for several more seasons.