Ten-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony needed to get some things off of his chest.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said that Anthony requested a one-on-one interview Friday on “First Take” in which he candidly discussed his short-lived tenures with the Thunder and Rockets, as well as potential retirement.

No, Melo isn’t ready to call it quits just yet — despite contemplating it at one point — but that would require a team that is willing to take on the 35-year-old forward, who is on the back end of his career. The Rockets traded Anthony to the Bulls after this past season and he was quickly waived two weeks later.

“I was surprised by it big-time,” Anthony 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, ‘OK, 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.”

Anthony reached out to Rockets GM Daryl Morey about his confusion over his place on the team, before learning that Morey had plans to release him from his contract. It was just the 10th game of the season when Anthony found himself benched.

“I didn’t like how that went down,” said Anthony, who was a Knick from 2011 to 2017. “He came in and he was just like, ‘Look, basically your service is no longer needed.'”

This came a season after he was traded from the Knicks to the Thunder, where things weren’t exactly what he thought they would be either. In Oklahoma City, Anthony hit full-season per-game lows in minutes (32.1), points (16.2) and assists (1.3) despite playing alongside Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

“I wasn’t willing to accept [coming off the bench],” he said. “That never was explained to me. If you sat down with me man-to-man and said, ‘Look, what’s best for this team is for you to come off the bench,’ I would’ve fought it a little bit, but would’ve stepped away from it and said, ‘You know what? This is what’s best for the team.’”

The former third-overall pick is still chasing a championship and said he is eager to play for whatever team takes a chance on him. Despite an initial unwillingness to take a reduced role, Anthony now says he is ready to do what’s best for his career.

“I felt like I loved the game more than the game loved me. At that point, that was my emotions. Now I love the game too much to be away from it. I just love the game,” Anthony said. “I do everything: I train the young guys, I’m training myself. I’m in it now. I’ve got a new life about me. It took me awhile to get out of that situation emotionally.”