Suns’ Channing Frye promises a return, next season

Channing Frye has good news: His golf game is improved.

“(It’s) a lot better,” he said. “Fixed my swing; fixed my hands. That’s all I had to do is just fix the hands a little bit.”

Frye though would much prefer his hands around a basketball; and while he does occasionally shoot jumpers on the practice court at US Airways Center, that appears to be the closest he’ll get to playing the sport this season.

Only days before the start of training camp in September, the Suns announced Frye would be sidelined indefinitely for medical reasons. A routine physical revealed Frye had developed a dilated cardiomyopathy — an enlarged heart.

At the time, there was some hope the former St. Mary’s High and University of Arizona star would be able to return this season after he was re-evaluated in December.

“That’s zero hope now,” he said.

Frye saw the doctor last week and while “everything is looking great,” he said the decision was made to wait and be checked again in March to see if he receives clearance to resume basketball activity.

“I’ll be back next season for sure,” he said. “This season, unless I’m a freak of nature and get healthy in less than a month and maybe if we’re going on a playoff run, but I would say no. You’ll see me working out and being with the team in the month of March and April but other than that, probably not.”

So until then, Frye will continue to enjoy the extra time with his family, cheer on his teammates from the sideline and yes, play a ton of golf.

“I’m really starting to develop certain things,” he said of his game. “It’s just a challenging thing for me. It’s been fun. It’s been awesome. For me, it’s just been being able to do something other than sitting and just wish I was playing ball.”

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