OK, not only is the above headline utterly full of shit, but it’s mostly the result of frustration over the New York Post’s Dan Martin nodding his head while Isiah Thomas lies to his face.

“I don’t think we were that wrong about James,” Thomas said after practice yesterday. “I think there’s a lot of basketball left in him.”

Yes, Zeke, but let’s not concentrate on the balls Jerome has yet to fully digest and instead let the player make his own case.

“This is my second year here and I’ve been injured the whole time,” James said. “I just want the opportunity to do the things I did in Seattle.”

(one playoff run aside, how’s that for setting the bar low?)

Tonight against the Clippers, he hopes to contain Elton Brand.

“With a player like him, you just try to slow him down,” said James, who was confident he would be able to defend not just Brand, but players like Lamar Odom, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett – the caliber of players he guarded as a Sonic.

“Eddy’s the best player and the franchise player on this team,” James said. “Any time you can have 20 [points] and 10 [rebounds] effortlessly, you don’t want to put him on the best offensive player.”

And with that, we have the best excuse to date for Curry’s inconsistent displays on defense ; a stronger effort might derail his campaign for the 2008 Eastern Conference All-Star Team.

Much as I respect Double J’s career resume, is the town really big enough for Two Jerome’s From Manhattan?

And with all due respect to Joe Johnson and Ben Gordon, I’d sooner see Chris Bosh (above) named TWICE to the Eastern Conference squad than Eddy Curry. Sam Mitchell has been the subject of repeated ridicule in this space, and even taking the weakened East into account, the recent accomplishments of the Raptors and the sicker-by-the-day Bosh are nothing to sneeze at.

Unless you’ve got cedar fever. In which case, go right ahead.