Channing is No Small Frye in N.Y.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Channing Frye couldn't run backwards without tripping over himself until he reached the ninth grade. By June of that same year, he finally executed his first dunk. That should be a significant milestone for your average high school freshman, but not for a 6-8 freshman.
"I wasn't always very coordinated," Frye says.

For a guy who makes it sound like he couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time, Frye has come a long way in a short amount of time. It's taken him less than 10 NBA games to emerge as the Knicks' best big man and perhaps their best overall player, period.

Frye has played fewer minutes than both Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis and yet he leads all Knicks forwards and centers with 49 field goals and averages 13.2 points per game. Frye's karma has been so good that his lob pass to David Lee last Friday against the Nuggets inadvertently went into the hoop. Or maybe it wasn't inadvertent.

"I wasn't aware how well he could shoot the ball," Larry Brown said following yesterday's practice in Greenburgh. "He can really shoot it. He came from a great program with a great coach. Being in school four years makes the transition easier."

Frye has scored 20 or more points in his last three games, converting 25 of 45 shots. Stephon Marbury is the only other Knick with at least three games of 20-plus points this season.

Overall, the 6-11 Frye is shooting 51%, which is all the more impressive when you consider that most of his baskets have come on perimeter jumpers. The Knicks haven't had a big man with similar range since Patrick Ewing was a dominating force in the '90s. But even Ewing needed a few years to develop a perimeter game.

"I remember Patrick came in the league and Moses (Malone), nobody ever thought they could shoot the ball," Brown said. "They would be defenders and rebounders. All of a sudden everybody saw Patrick with the ability to step out and make an open jump shot. I coached against Moses in the ABA his first year. In his first game he had 32 (points) and 32 (rebounds). They told me he wasn't physical enough to play.

"But Channing, that's something you can't teach. You can become a better shooter in the pros because we have so much time to work on it. But to shoot it as well as Patrick or he does, that's a gift."

The head coach and the rookie forward have forged a strong relationship. Frye laughs every time Brown's New York accent surfaces and he calls the first-year player, 'Channin.'

"He leaves off the g," Frye says. "I have a new name."</div>

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