TORONTO: Cavaliers center Channing Frye has been excused indefinitely from the team following the death of his mother.
He missed Friday’s game at Toronto and will not play in Saturday’s home game against the Orlando Magic.
Karen Mulzac-Frye died Thursday night after a long battle with cancer. She enjoyed a successful career as an Emmy-winning reporter and producer in Phoenix. One of her projects in 2009 was When Cancer Returns 8X: The Mary Schnack Story, a short documentary about her close friend who ultimately died after eight different bouts with cancer.
Frye kept his mother’s illness quiet. Coach Tyronn Lue didn’t even know until a couple of days ago. Lue’s mother, Kim, had her own cancer battle last season. Lue addressed the situation with the team on Thursday.
“For him to internalize it this whole time without saying anything to anyone is tough,” Lue said. “It’s a tough time for him. We have to be here as brothers to support him and do whatever we need to do to make sure he’s OK.”
Richard Jefferson, a close friend of Frye for nearly 20 years, declined to talk about the situation.
“He’s been in communication with everybody,” Jefferson said. “I think it’s best if everyone just kind of lets him handle it how he chooses, especially when he gets back.
King’s bucket list
LeBron James has unlimited money and accessibility to go and do whatever he wants, but he still has a bucket list like everyone else. Attending a World Series game on Wednesday crossed one item off his list. Some of the others will have to wait until he retires.
“I’ve been in the playoffs for 12 straight years, so the Kentucky Derby,” James said. “And the F1 racing in Monaco.
“It has nothing to do about money and accessibility, it’s about my schedule.”
James is a huge college football fan, so his bucket list is littered with college football stadiums he’d like to see such as Michigan Stadium, Beaver Stadium at Penn State, Notre Dame Stadium and Kyle Field (Texas A&M).
James was asked if he wanted to run with the bulls, but he was asked shortly after talking about Dwyane Wade’s move to Chicago.
“You’re talking about D-Wade. I was about to say, don’t start that, man,” James laughed. “No, I’m not running with no damn bulls. I’m not.”
Reverse course
Kay Felder is a left-handed point guard forced to play right-handed, at least in practice. Felder, who was recently cleared from the league’s concussion protocol and allowed to return, has to act as a right-handed point guard in practice in order to run the plays correctly for Jefferson and Frye.
“RJ and Channing, they complain every day,” Lue said. “Going through the plays, if you mess a play up, you’ve got to run a sprint. So Kay is running plays on the right side of the floor where Kyrie [Irving] and everybody else is running them on the left side of the floor.”
Jefferson and Frye protested so much that Lue made Felder adjust.
“They should know it as vets, but they don’t,” Lue said. “They don’t get it. So now we have to move the playbook to the other side and try to help them out.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com.