Posts tagged Channing Frye at FanHouse

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

On Thanksgiving we all give thanks, and the NBA's Channing Frye is no different. In this video the up-and-coming star of the Portland Trail Blazers tells us about his grandfather, a WWII hero and a person who has made history in the United States Army. The reason? Frye's grandfather is one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.

Check out the full video after the jump.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

The MMA is one of fastest growing sports in the world and these days even NBA players are getting into it. In this video we ask players like Luke Walton, Channing Frye, Sasha Vujacic and Jarron Collins which fighters they enjoy watching, and we also find an NBA player who is actually working out with an MMA star to sharpen his basketball skills. When you hear which NBA player that is you will be caught off guard.

Check out the full video after the jump, and find out which NBA player would be a surprisingly tough tussle on the hardwood.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

In this exclusive video, we talk to NBA All-Star Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers about his new and exciting young team. Find out why he thinks he's lucky to be on such a good team. We also catch up with Channing Frye, Greg Oden (before his most recent injury) and the newcomer, Frenchman Nicolas Batum, who shares with us the one thing people want to know about his homeland.

Watch the video after the jump.

Channing Frye is constantly expanding his repertoire (one could say "faster than Kevin Pritchard is picking up new weapons," but I think that's immeasurable). First he becomes a class-A blogger. Then he decides that he is going to be an outside shooter for a Portland team that might have 43 viable starters. Witness. Frye.



Not too shabby, no? And it makes a lot of sense; big men that can shoot the ball from the outside and spread the defense are highly valuable weapons. And that's just what the Blazers need. More weapons.

You would think an NBA "superstar" (I think they all actually qualify by default) wouldn't have a problem planning his birthday party. In fact, if you look at the ridiculousness of everyone on the Wizards, it would seem that other celebrities would plan it for him. Not so for Channing Frye.

In fact, the Portland forward is turning to the people, and the weird city in the Northwest, for help in planning his 25th birthday party.

Me being 24 has been some of the best months of my life: I met my girlfriend; I finally found a nice place to live; I've met some friends I'm gonna have for the rest of my life; and last but not least, I've grown up a lot mentally, physically, and spiritually.

So I need to have a really tight place or some fine things to do on my b-day. [...]

So really guys, please send me your ideas. I want to know what I should do and I will be in Portland. It has to be something that we can do that's not too expensive. I'm a penny pincher, by the way. So send your info my way.

There you have it. Come up with a decent idea for where Channing should throw down in Portland and you could -- for free, no less! -- become the unofficial party planner for an NBA player. Personally, if I was insanely rich, I'd have someone build an adult version of Celebration Station for me, just to throw down in one day. Or maybe I would buy a house and fill it with sand and palm trees and have an indoor beach party.

Oh, and young Frye, feel free to holler at me -- I'm full of good ideas. (Caddyshack themed parties, to name another.) Your ideas for Channing's B-day party in the comments.

Channing Frye wanted his blog to be all about the community and non-basketball stuff (etc.), and with his "Keep Portland Weird" contest, he seems to have accomplished that. Bear in mind that "KPW" has no prize that is offered for its winner, just the happy knowledge that said contributors have happened to help let everyone know what a weird freaking place it is. Since I can't possibly explain it without just posting a picture of Greg Oden, I'll let Channing handle it.

It means Keep Portland Weird and the true Oregonians, the ones who wear Birkenstocks, ride in a Subaru, wear earthtones 90% of the time, these are the people that have this bumper sticker on their car.

When I first moved to Portland, I truly didn't understand or realize the greatness of that meaning until I saw some of the ... how do I put this ... very INTERESTING people that walk the beautiful streets of our fair city.

Now, this has been reported on before, so it's not very exciting. However, Channing is releasing all the photos that people submitted to him via email and they're all up on his new blog post. I would highly recommend checking them out; not only do you get a feel for the absurdity of the northwest and Portland itself, but you get a pretty good idea for how Zach Randolph ended up like he did.

Not to harp on the notion of Channing Frye as a celebrity blogger or anything, but he was kind enough to answer some questions that I sent him via email about his new blog. Far more humorous and interesting though, is the latest entry that he put down, involving Greg Oden, Oden's dog Charles Barkley McLovin', and gambling (for fun) on yooooooooour New England Patriots.

#2 – Don't make bets on top of bets because you think that your team is gonna win. Long story short, I made a bet to cut my hair with my parents on the Patriots cause I was so over confident in Tom Brady and Randy Moss and my fellow U of A alumni, Teddy Bruschi.

I made another bet with Greg Oden, who was equally growing his hair out to almost cave man proportions – LOL. So I bet him whoever cuts their hair first has to walk the other person's dog. I don't know what made me make that bet, but oh well, it makes for a great story. Still, I'm really mad that I have to walk his little rat dog, Charles Barkley McLovin'. I don't even know what kinda dog it is but I don't even like walking my dogs let alone a little lap dog. But hey, a bet is a bet and it's the last bet that I'll make...I think...

"Last bet." Sure. Who hasn't said that before? Anyway, there's literally nothing funnier to me in the entire world than the Oden's dog's name, even if it has nothing to do with the spicy storylines going down this afternoon in the L. Oh yeah. And Channing answers my questions, after the jump.

There's not much "cooler" than finding out that another NBA player is firing up a blog. Well, there are lots of things that are cooler, but it's still fascinating nonetheless. And the newest gentleman from the L taking a shot in the blogosphere? Channing Frye. (In fairness, Frye's blog has been up since January 12th, but we weren't pointed to it until just recently.)

The interesting aspect of Frye's blog though, is that he doesn't want to focus it primarily on the NBA, or the life of a professional basketball player, instead focusing it things that in everyday life, society, etc.

Well enough about [my background]. Let's talk about my blog. I'm not going to be writing about basketball stuff every day. I'm gonna talk about the real stuff. The stuff that matters, like what's the funniest video on the web today or the best movie ever or my favorite spots to eat drink and be merry in PDX. Shoot, I might even give you an opinion on whatever you want. But also remember that it's just my opinion so if I offend anyone it's not on purpose, it's just my point of view.

Honestly, that's pretty refreshing. Not that any of the current NBA blogs (a la Greg Oden, Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas et al) aren't great reads, or anything short of "must-reads"; I absolutely think they are, especially if you care about the NBA. But it certainly is refreshing to see an athlete like Frye firing up a personal website on his own accord and adding a blog in there because, well, just like the rest of us, he likes to talk about random stuff (current topics include new movies, the Super Bowl, and election thoughts).

When the Trail Blazers won the lottery, fans in Portland knew they'd be getting either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, so it's not a surprise that before Oden was even drafted the team was able to sell 3,500 season tickets. How many more season tickets have they sold since? I have no clue, but I wouldn't bat an eye if that figure had already doubled.

Following the news today that Oden will miss the entire season recovering from microfracture surgery, I'm guessing those sales have come to a halt. No offense to Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge or Channing Frye, but they just don't have the same appeal as Oden, franchise savior and future NBA cornerstone.

So what's a franchise to do? Will the team issue refunds to all of the fairweather fans who just recently jumped on the bandwagon, or will they hold them accountable for their purchase and hope the team's still quite talented and still quite young roster will get the fans hooked for next year? I don't know if the Trail Blazers have set an official policy about this yet, but they'll have to soon.

I can understand why the Blazers might want to avoid the PR disaster that'd come with holding the fans hostage to watch a full slate of games missing the one player they paid to see, but simply giving back the money might set a bad precedent, not to mention send the wrong message to the team that their season is in fact over before it ever began. Either way, it's not a fun time to be a Blazers fan.

Previously on FanHouse:
The Medical Side of Greg Oden's Surgery
Greg Oden: Sam Bowie All Over Again?
Watch Out for the 2008-09 Blazers
We'll Have to Wait Another Year for Oden

If you recall, heading into the draft some experts were hung up on Portland's lack of a SF and glut of big-ish men. For this reason alone, they advocated taking Kevin Durant to fill the void. That didn't happen, but the Blazers are still perilously thin at that position.

Now, The Oregonian reports that NBDL success story (and last year's starter) Ime Udoka is headed to the Spurs. I'd forgotten, but the Blazers acquired the streaky James Jones on draft night--a move that may or may not be an improvement over car-toting Darius Miles and young buck Travis Outlaw. While Outlaw has promise, in many ways Udoka is the most solid option of the bunch. Jones failed to light it up in Phoenix; chances are, he's not going to suddenly step up without a Nash-caliber point to set him up.

Meanwhile, the Blazers' fours and fives continue to blossom. In the same paper, John Canzano reveals that Channing Frye could beat out LaMarcus Aldridge for the starting PF position. We know that both were named to that USA Basketball Select Scrimmage Team, but who had any idea that they were neck-in-neck? Luckily, that kind of player is far harder to find than a passable SF, so Portland shouldn't worry too much.