Channing Frye Sticks to His Guns After Saying Michael Jordan Was Just a Scorer
Former NBA player Channing Frye made what most perceive as an absurd comment regarding Michael Jordan. Frye was talking about the very common debate about who the best NBA player of all time was. Frye, a former teammate of LeBron James, said he believes James is a better player than Michael Jordan was. That’s not the crazy part. Frye said one of the reasons he would pick James was because Jordan only had one job and that was to score. He gave his opinion and now he’s having lots of fun with it.
Channing Frye had a 13-year career in the NBA
Channing Frye has a lengthy NBA resume. That makes his statement about Michael Jordan even more puzzling. Frye has a solid basketball background, but maybe just doesn’t have basketball knowledge. Picking LeBron James over Michael Jordan certainly isn’t absurd, but referring to Jordan as one-dimensional is pretty crazy.
Frye was a 7-foot center/forward who played his college ball at Arizona. He was a first-round draft pick of the New York Knicks, taken eighth overall in the 2005 NBA draft. He played for six different teams in the NBA as a solid big man.
Frye played four seasons in Cleveland where he was a teammate of LeBron James. In addition to the Knicks and Cavs, he also played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, and the Los Angeles Lakers. For his career, Frye averaged 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds her game. He missed the 2012-13 season due to an enlarged heart.
The NBA’s GOAT debate continues
It’s a topic that’s been going on for a while and it’s likely to keep on going. Who is the best player to ever play in the NBA? It’s a difficult choice dealing with players from various eras. Would Bill Russell have won 11 NBA titles if he played in today’s salary-cap era?
Former Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons Hall-of-Famer Dennis Rodman he doesn’t believe LeBron James wouldn’t’ have been as good as he is today had he played in Michael Jordan’s era. It’s a fun topic to discuss and there’s no concrete answer. When the topic comes up, Jordan and James usually head the list, but others such as Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, and Russell are always in the mix.
On his podcast, Talkin’ Blazers With Channing Frye, Frye said he believed James is the best of all time. He said championships had to be thrown out because if it was based on titles, Bill Russell would win. Fair point. Where it got absurd when he said, “(Jordan) only had really one job, and that was to just score. And he did that at an amazing, amazing rate. But I don’t feel like his way of winning then would translate to what it is now.” For the record, Jordan was a nine-time NBA All-Defensive player and led the league in steals three seasons. He was the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the 1987-88 season.
Frye catching heat on social media but taking it all in stride
Channing Frye did preface his comment by saying he wasn’t a Michael Jordan fan to begin with. “I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t a Jordan fan. I’m from Phoenix,” he said on his podcast. “So, I’m a (Charles) Barkley guy, I’m a Kevin Johnson guy, I’m a Thunder Dan (Majerle) guy. So, as much as everyone is shocked, I never had Jordan on my top player of all-time anyways.”
Frye took a lot of heat on Twitter and played along with a lot of the debaters. When someone asked if Frye was serious, Frye responded with “It’s just my take. If you listen I actually say he’s 1a or 1b. But now that everyone is all fiery I might as well take a harder stance and say I like the Pistons bad boy teams more than the bulls teams!”
Frye’s Twitter feed has been blowing up since the comment and he’s having a blast with it. He’s engaging with fans. He’s got his opinion about the NBA’s GOAT and he’s sticking with it.
