NBA star: Star Jones and I are just friends

May 3, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

ATLANTA — Dwyane Wade has finally spoken up about his alleged romance with Star Jones: “Star is an unbelievable woman. We have a great, great relationship. As friends.”

“We’re friends, just like a lot of celebrities. We are friends,” the pro basketball star said Thursday during a guest appearance on “Inside the NBA,” the jocular TNT show featuring Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson.

“Are y’all close friends?” Smith asked.

“We’re good friends,” Wade responded.

“Are you the kind of friends that drink out of one cup with two straws?” Smith persisted, referring to a much-discussed photo of Wade, 26, and Jones, the 46-year-old TV personality who recently filed for divorce, at a tennis match. “Those kind of friends?”

“We are friends. That’s all,” said Wade, who is married to his high school sweetheart and has two sons.

“Good friends?” Barkley interjected.

“Naw, Chuck,” Wade said with a smile.

Some hilarity ensued. Barkley broke through the commotion to say, “I like Star. She’s a cougar.”

“What’s a cougar?” Smith asked, not so innocently, a perfect lob to Barkley.

Sir Charles promptly slammed the ball home: “Preying on a young Dwyane Wade.”

Representatives for Jones did not immediately return a call to comment Thursday night.

Today’s birthdays

Folk singer Pete Seeger is 89. Actress Ann B. Davis (“The Brady Bunch”) is 82. Singer Frankie Valli is 73. Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 62. Singer Mary Hopkin is 58. Singer Christopher Cross is 57. Country drummer Cactus Moser of Highway 101 is 51. Keyboardist David Ball of Soft Cell is 49. Country singer Shane Minor is 40. Country singer Brad Martin is 35. Actor Dule’ Hill (“The West Wing”) is 33. Dancer Cheryl Burke (“Dancing With The Stars”) is 24.