It wasn’t a trade that happened, but the one that didn’t happen. And it still haunts Kendrick Perkins.

Discussing the most unexpected trades late in their NBA careers with Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson, and Allie Clifton on Road Trippin’, Perk expressed nearly as much disdain for a former New Orleans Pelicans executive as he does — or at least did have — for Charles Barkley.

“Mine was the trade that didn’t happen,” Perkins began. “So, I’m playing for the Pelicans, and it probably cost me a championship, to be honest with you. Either way, it did. So, I’m playing with the Pelicans and I’m backing up Alexis Ajinça, Ömer Aşık. I’m like a veteran in the locker room. This is when I developed the relationship with Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, etc. I’m with the Pelicans. We’re not winning sh*t.

“At the time, Dell Demps, by the way, I don’t have a lot of people that I hate. I despise him, and I wish the worst for him in the basketball space. And I’m not afraid to say it. I would tell him in his face. I can’t stand that motherf*cker. I can’t. He’s a liar. He done lied to so many people. He’s a snake, and I hate him.”

Why? Because at the 2015-16 trade deadline, everything was in motion. LeBron James rolled through New Orleans, telling his former Cleveland teammate, “We’re about to come get you, motherf*cker. We want you part of the team, part of the bench.” Perkins was playing his role, ready for the call.

Kevin Durant even texted him, letting him know OKC wanted him back, too. Perk says Cleveland reportedly offered a second-round pick for him that year, the same year the Cavs erased a 3-1 Finals deficit to win it all in 2016, while OKC blew a 3-1 lead against Golden State. Both teams were racing to bring him back as a veteran presence on the bench as a steady locker room guy.

Except it never happened.

“Dell Demps comes to me and says, ‘I’m not trading you, Perk. We’re not trading you. We want you here for our locker room. You’re going to retire a Pelican,’” Perkins recalls the then-general manager telling him. “I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. So you telling me?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, we want you here for the next two years. Retire. We’re gonna have a plan.’ So, I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t, I get two more years without having to worry?’ Because at that point, I don’t know where my career is going to be honest with y’all. At that point, it’s like vet minimum, and once you get on vet minimum, you’re stuck on vet minimum.”

Both aforementioned teams attempted to pull the trigger, but nothing ever came of it. Perkins thought he was staying with New Orleans until that very offseason. He turned down a chance to play in his hometown of Houston with James Harden because he’d already given his word to Demps.

After August rolled around and Perkins hadn’t heard from the Pelicans, he reached out, wondering what was going on. Demps finally called back, saying he’d reconsidered. The plan had changed. It was time to let the young guys run the show, and Perkins wouldn’t be coming back.

“I was like, ‘What the f*ck?’” Perkins said. “I cussed his motherf*cking ass out right there on the phone. I cussed him out. So, I hung up, and truth be told, right then, I had no more options. So, that next year, I was completely out of the league. Now, you done possibly cost me a championship. I did turn down one of the teams that had a deal on the table, and was ready to sign. At the beginning of free agency, the Rockets contacted me like, ‘Hey, we got a vet minimum on the table for you. Right now. Stay in Houston.’ That next year, I had no job.”

That call marked pretty much the end of Perkins’ NBA journey. What could’ve been a final chapter filled with a ring and respect instead became a sudden and bitter exit, all because of broken promises.

“I’m not blaming him for the direction my NBA career went, but he played a huge f*cking part,” Perk added. “And he took at least one or two years off of my career, while I could’ve been on the bench, averaging 1500 f*cking claps. But, instead, he shortened my career by being a snake and lying… I can’t stand him. He knows it. I saw him in Minnesota when they was playing, because he works in the front office in Minnesota, and the motherf*cker couldn’t even look at me. Straight up.”

There was no last ride for Kendrick Perkins. He had to beg Ty Lue for a training camp invite, just to keep the door slightly open.

And the man who closed it still can’t look him in the eye.