Rankings the best NBA nicknames of all time

11. Buffet of Goodness

I’ll be honest: following an extremely cursory Google search, I have no idea where Channing Frye’s Buffet of Goodness handle originated. Reddit trails lead nowhere, as do message board posts and years-old newspaper clippings referring to the name merely as a headline. Even Frye himself is reticent over its origin story, allowing only that it was an inside joke between friends and refusing to acknowledge it as his own nickname.

Whatever, Channing: you’re Buffet of Goodness now. An NBA champion and a well-traveled, productive big man with a beloved podcast and friendships across the league, there is no reason that Channing Frye should not be Buffet of Goodness. Maybe it came when he led St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix to a state championship in 2001. Maybe it came when he was destroying the Pac-10 as an Arizona Wildcat, earning two First-team all-conference nominations. Maybe it was when he was caping for Eddy Curry as a spacer with the New York Knicks, and Isiah Thomas was thinking about Red Lobster.

However Frye became Buffet of Goodness, we’re all glad that he did. Frye is a nearly 39% shooter from distance and a guy who has averaged 9 points and almost 5 rebounds over a 12-year stint in the league. That’s a solid NBA career and a downright remarkable one for a 6-foot-11 guy who came of age before big men were all gunning from deep. Frye is a forerunner to the modern NBA big, and while he isn’t Kevin Garnett, he has a place at the table of influential players in the aughts. He is the Buffet of Goodness.