ATLANTA -- "Inside the NBA" is on the case over the questionable "friendship" between Star Jones and Dwyane Wade.

There has been talk that the talk show host and the Miami Heat star are an item, even though there is a 20-year difference between them.

The subject was a topic for discussion when Wade appeared on "Inside the NBA." He described his relationship with Jones as "friends, just like a lot of celebrities."

Co-hosts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson weren't going to let that slide. They kept pressing Wade for details, but he stuck to the "we're just friends" story.

"Are you the kind of friends that drink out of one cup with two straws?" Smith asked, referring to a much-discussed photo at tennis match of the player and television personality who recently filed for divorce.

Wade, who is 26, is married with two kids. Jones is 46.

Never one to mince words, Barkley described Jones as a "cougar," who was "preying on a young Dwyane Wade."