Rockets general manager Daryl Morey says the Asik trade fell apart and that it’s “pretty likely” Omer Asik is here for “quite a long time.”

Wednesday night at the Toyota Center, the question wasn’t “if” the Rockets would trade Omer Asik or what day they would do it, but rather what time of the day on Thursday the trade would go down.

The Rockets had a fallback deal in place to trade Asik, waiting until Thursday to see if better offers came in, but news came out in the early afternoon that the Rockets had abruptly taken the seven-footer off the block.

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, speaking on radio station SportsTalk 790 Friday morning with hosts Adam Clanton and Lance Zierlein, said the deal they had in place fell apart.

“We were definitely trying to move (Asik),” said Morey. “It was trending towards something happening, but sometimes when you get to those last approvals and the owner, I think as Houston fans know from past deals that didn’t come off that looked like they were done, they don’t happen.”

The better offers? Those never arrived.

“You’re obviously never going to do a deal that doesn’t help the team or keep you at least even,” said Morey. “And those didn’t present themselves.”

Morey said he spoke to Asik personally on Thursday.

“It’s pretty likely that Omer is here for quite a long time,” said Morey. “A lot of the dynamics that went into things not working out don’t change, in terms of the contract and things like that. We did feel like we owed it to Omer to give a strong look at it, but nothing ended up materializing.”

The full interview is here:

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