Channing Frye averaged 10.5 points and 5.9 rebounds in the 2011-12 season. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Here is happy news from former Arizona Wildcats center Channing Frye via The Arizona Republic, our Gannett partner:
By Paul Coro
azcentral sports
Suns power forward Channing Frye announced Sunday that he has been cleared to join the team’s training camp this week, a year and nine days after he disclosed that he would have to miss an entire season due to an enlarged heart.
Frye had received clearance to resume basketball work earlier this summer by doctors he sought at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore but had been waiting for the Suns to get further assurances from other doctors. The Suns entered the weekend hopeful of a positive outcome but the apparent final word did not come until Sunday.
“It’s been a long journey getting healthy but I did it through the support of my friends and family and with my will to not give up,” Frye said on Sunday. “I’m very excited to be a part of this new young Suns team. I take pride in this uniform and can’t wait to run out of the tunnel to the fans that have been supportive throughout this whole process.”
That moment at US Airways Center will not necessarily come in the Oct. 30 season opener because Frye still has a way to go to get into basketball shape.
It was last September that he announced he would have to miss the 2012-13 season due to an enlarged heart being discovered during routine preseason exams. Frye was limited to no more than golf, set shooting and yoga until late this summer, when he resumed individual workouts, declared himself “unequivocally healthy” and shed about 20 pounds in anticipation of a full clearance for training camp.
The Suns officially report to US Airways Center on Monday and leave for Flagstaff, where they will open a six-day training camp on Tuesday.
Suns officials are declining comment until the team’s media day on Monday.
The Suns hold their media day on Monday, then hold a five-day training camp in Flagstaff.