Before Luis Scola was traded from the San Antonio Spurs to the Houston Rockets in 2007, there was a done deal which had him on his way to join LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Houston Chronicle is reporting.

The Spurs had the deal done to trade Scola?s rights to the Cavaliers, only to have it fall apart. Two hours later, talks heated up with the Rockets and within two more hours, the Rockets acquired the rights to Scola for Vassilis Spanoulis.

Scola went through ups and downs even more trying than the teams?.

?I think about it occasionally,? Scola, who had 11 points and eight rebounds on Tuesday, said. ?I was really, really, really close. Until four hours before I was traded (to Houston) I was 80 percent sure I was coming to Cleveland.

?I was excited. Now, I think the best thing that could happen to me was to go to Houston. I?m really happy with everything, the way it turned out.?