By MARC BERMAN

David Lee gave Isiah Thomas the game ball following the wild season-opening win in Memphis last night. Now Thomas could soon give Lee the starting power forward job.

It was evident all training camp that Lee was outplaying and outworking Channing Frye, who got bulkedup over the summer but doesn’t seem stronger basketball-wise.

The Knicks don’t beat Memphis in triple overtime without Lee’s scrappiness. He posted a double-double in 30 minutes – 10 points, 13 boards and had one big block late in the fourth.

Frye hasn’t done much of anything. The only thing he has on Lee is height and a better jumper but now not much is falling and Isiah Thomas isn’t finding a way to run pick-and-rolls for him.

Frye was 2 of 10 with just four rebounds. His confidence looks shot. At today’s giddy practice at Georgia Tech – and I mean giddy – Thomas danced around the topic and didn’t want to heap too much praise on Lee for fear of disrespecting Frye. But the issue is not expected to go away.

Lee got the final, tough rebound of the marathon night – a rebound Frye never would have hauled in. A lot of balls go off his hands and he still seems to get jostled around underneath.

Larry Brown’s failure to give Lee a consistent role night in and night out was the biggest proof the former Knicks coach was up to something. Lee should have been the prototype Brown role player last season.

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It was quite a scene at Georgia Tech today. The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team watched the Knicks practice (Barbara Streisand is playing Philips Arena so the Knicks were shut out there).

Afterward, Thomas was immersed by the women’s team. The women’s head coach, Michelle Joseph, had played at Purdue at the same time Isiah Thomas played at Indiana. “You were my idol,” she told him.

Isiah posed for pictures with the team and signed autographs for them. You could tell he was eating the whole thing up.