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By John DentonNov. 8, 2014
NEW YORK – In a script that seemed to be straight out a syrupy-sweet Hollywood sports movie, the older cousin – the one who actually paved the way to the NBA years earlier – set a screen for the younger cousin, one that freed him up to drill the game-winning shot an instant before the final horn.
And just to complete the family feel from Wednesday, the father to the younger player – who is subsequently also the uncle to the older cousin – was sitting nearby and watched the entire sequence unfold. Still somewhat bleary-eyed from a trip the night before, the third family member couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed from his flesh (his son) and blood (his nephew).
``It was kind of interesting because Tobias had called me earlier in the day and said, `Oh, you don’t need to come to the game.’ I told him, `Nope, I’m coming to this game because I feel like something special is going to happen,’’’ said Torrel Harris, father to Orlando Magic forward Tobias Harris and the uncle of first-year Magic forward Channing Frye.
`Tobias knew that I was tired from my trip and said that I didn’t have to come to the game, but I told him, `No way, I really feel like something special is going to happen.’ After Tobias hit that shot, I said, `Bingo, there it is.’’’
Sports moments don’t get much more special than the one that the Harris and Frye families got to experience on Wednesday in Orlando’s 91-89 defeat of the Philadelphia 76ers. As Harris, 22, ran down the lane and broke hard to his right, Frye, 31, set the key screen that created space and made the shot possible. From there, Harris did the rest by spinning, fading and sinking the 21-foot shot that caused his teammates to streak onto the floor in celebration.
At the time of his clutch basket, Harris was overcome with the joy of helping to lift his Magic to their first victory of the season. But as he watched the shot over and over again – both on ESPN’s SportsCenter and on his laptop via a DVD – Harris was struck by the magnitude of the moment. Two family members, playing on the same team for the first time in their lives, worked well together to produce magic for Orlando.
``It was surreal,’’ Harris admitted on Saturday. ``When I look at it in hindsight, I realize now that it was pretty special the way it all unfolded. I’m sure that I’ll look back at it at the end of my career too and realize how special of a moment that was.’’
Harris and Frye will be in New York on Sunday when the Magic (2-4) face the Brooklyn Nets (3-2) at 3:30 p.m. Barclays Center is not far from where their mothers – Lisa (Tobias) and Karen (Channing) – grew up in Brooklyn as two of eight children with a one-year age gap and being ``thick as thieves,’’ Lisa said. The two starters for the Magic will also be near their former homes – Frye was born in White Plains, N.Y. before moving to Arizona, while Harris was born in Islip and went to high school in Dix Hills, N.Y.
The family is expecting more than 100 friends and family members at the game, including the possibility to seeing 90-year-old grandfather Lt. Col. John Mulzac, who was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen in 1942 during World War II. Those in attendance will get to see Harris and Frye not only play in the same NBA game, but don the same Magic jersey and once again work together for a common purpose. The moment, Lisa said, is almost too good to be true.
``It’s really special for our family,’’ said Lisa, who admitted that she got ``really loud’’ on Wednesday night when watching her son drill the game-winning shot from her home in New York. ``Just having one relative in the NBA is big, but to have two getting there and now they’re on the same team, you couldn’t have planned this. We never thought this was possible and it was never planned, so that just makes it even more special.’’
The union of the two first cousins was made possible when the Magic heavily pursued Frye in free agency last summer. Harris, who came to the Magic in a trade in February of 2013, also put in a call to Frye to see if he would be interested in joining the rebuilding Magic. Harris and Magic GM Rob Hennigan and head coach Jacque Vaughn all saw the same thing – Harris’ abilities as a leader and shooting the 3-pointer as a power forward would greatly benefit the Magic.
Through six games, Harris is the Magic’s leading scorer at 17.7 points per game, while Frye – who missed four weeks of training camp and the opener because of a knee sprain – is getting more comfortable around his new teammates and is averaging 8.2 points and 5.4 rebounds while having made seven 3-pointers.
``We’re both players and both scores, so we know how to play off one another,’’ Harris said. ``He’s family, so it’s been good having him around. He’s a bright spot for our team and he keeps everybody upbeat and focused. It’s definitely exciting any time that we’re out there on the floor together. Obviously we have good chemistry. He makes the game easier for a lot of people, including myself.’’
After signing a four-year contract with the Magic in July, Frye was blown away at how hard Harris worked throughout the summer to get himself ready for this season. Whereas Frye can be sarcastic and funny quite often, Harris is nicknamed ``All Business’’ because of his no-nonsense and serious approach to basketball. And when Harris hit the game-winner on Wednesday, Frye was quick to point out that his first cousin earned the opportunity because he had put in so much work over the summer to prepare for the situation.
``(Playing on the same team) definitely is a dream come true for our family,’’ Frye said. ``Any time that you have two people from the same family on the court at the same time, it’s special. I’ve been able to see Tobias grow through the years and with me being here now I just want to help him grow more. We’ll always be family first, but out here it all about winning games. That comes first when we’re on the court.’’
Frye moved from New York to the Phoenix area as a child and he became a college star at the University of Arizona from 2001-05. And when Frye was drafted No. 8 in the 2005 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks, it gave Harris and younger brothers Tyler and Terry a chance to go watch their much-older cousin play at Madison Square Garden.
Frye didn’t know it at the time, but he was blazing a trail for Harris to the NBA. Harris starred at the University of Tennessee for one season before being the 19th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft. Tyler (20 years old) plays at Providence and Terry (18 years old) plays at Houston Baptist and they too hope to follow in Channing and Tobias’ footsteps to the NBA.
``When Channing was in the NBA, Tobias and Tyler were in middle and elementary school and they could see how this dream could be a reality for them as well,’’ Lisa Harris said. ``I’m sure they looked at Channing and imagined their day coming if they worked hard enough.’’
Said Tobias: ``I followed Channing pretty much his whole career at Arizona and then him being drafted to the Knicks. He showed me the way and it was pretty exciting to have somebody from our family make it to the NBA. It pushed me to try and make it, too.’’
Because of their age difference and their upbringings in different time zones, Frye and Harris aren’t as close as some first cousins. But playing on the same NBA team has allowed them to occasionally hang out at each other’s houses during their downtime and to see each other on a daily basis in the Magic locker room. And they know that they have to be related considering the way that neither will shy away from a lively debate.
``We’ve been hanging out a lot. We’re around each other so much, that when the guys on the team hear us arguing about something or debating things, people tell us that we argue like cousins,’’ Harris said with a laugh. ``Channing’s always taking the opposite side of things, but he’s a fun guy to be around.’’
Not long after setting the screen for his younger cousin’s game-winning shot on Wednesday in Philly, Frye offered up a witty assessment of what had just transpired. As much as he and Harris stressed that their focus was on the Magic’s first victory, they did take great delight in the family feel that they provided.
``It showed that we’re being successful and we’re playing the game the right way,’’ Frye said of him and Harris teaming up on the winner. ``The thing is that for Tobias, he’s made shots at the end of his career. That might run in the family – just kidding.’’