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James and new teammate Shaquille O'Neal make their only Garden appearance in a game that will be televised on ESPN, and is sure to have a circus atmosphere surrounding it. James is expected to address a large media contingent about an hour before tipoff.

A big Bombers fan, James is happy that order has been restored to the Yankees' universe.

"The Yankees are back on top where they belong," read a text message James sent to Knicks guard Larry Hughes, James' friend and former teammate with the Cavaliers.

It is unknown whether James, a close friend of Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, will attend the parade. The Cavaliers host Chicago on Thursday night on TNT and likely won't arrive in New York until the wee hours Friday morning. The parade begins at 11 a.m.

The larger question is this: Will James ever enjoy a parade of his own in New York with the Knicks?

The Knicks (1-4 after Wednesday's loss to Indiana) have freed up salary cap space to make a run at King James in the summer of 2010, and James has given Knicks' fans hope by keeping his options open.

"I signed a contract in 2006 with an option. It would make no sense for me to sign that contract if I didn't keep my options open," James told Cleveland reporters in August. "I'll let you fill in the blanks."

Hughes, who touches base with James via text about their respective families isn't sure what James will do.

"I have no idea," Hughes said after practice Thursday. "I don't know. He has the opportunity to win a championship right now, and I think he'll go through the process after the season."

Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni was an assistant coach with the gold medal winning Olympic team, but sounds tired of talking about free agency and what potentially looms in 2010.

"I'm so worried about our team right now. ... I really am not interested," D'Antoni said. "I don't have the time. It's something that will eventually happen, but it doesn't interest me at all."

Of course, just about everyone else has an opinion on what James should do.

When asked if he had any idea where James might finish out his career, NBA commissioner David Stern told reelsportsfan.com, "None whatsoever -- although I hope it's in Cleveland."

NBA legend Larry Bird agrees.

"I just hope he stays in Cleveland," Bird said on a recent teleconference. "He means so much to that state. Plus, I like to see players stay where they were drafted."

Former Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury, who seems to take a shot at his former team just about every day via the New York Post, flat out said James shouldn't come to New York.

"LeBron isn't coming to a rebuilding team," Marbury told The Post. "Why would he come to a rebuilding team? It makes no sense. Is this franchise built to win a championship or to make money?"

Magic Johnson, on the other hand, thinks coming to the Big Apple, would be a good move for James.

"He's an incredible, incredible talent and he would bring a winning atmosphere to New York," Johnson said. "He would be someone the city is buzzing about and want to see. He would create an atmosphere where other players would want to play with him. At the end of the day, he would win a championship."

Sabathia told the Daily News in May he wouldn't recruit James to New York, but knows the Knicks would love to have him.

"It's the biggest stage in the world and he's the best player in the NBA," Sabathia said. "If he wanted to come here, I think they'd welcome him with open arms."

Hughes said that James' future has become the topic of a series of jokes among his teammates.

"If we had a bad meal on the plane, we're, 'Hey, meals would be better if 'Bron was here,'" Hughes said. "Just things like that. We have to have fun with it."

Last February, James dropped 52 points on the Knicks at the Garden -- two days after Kobe Bryant gave New York 61.

So is James poised for another big performance on the same day the Yanks are coronated in the Canyon?

"He'll be glowing," Hughes said of James. "He'll be ready. He may not say he's ready but he'll be ready to perform.

"A big-time guy like that, there's no question that he loves the stage, whether it's the playoff stage or the Finals stage, he definitely loves the stage."

D'Antoni on Shaq, Curry: "Shaquille's going to add a presence [to Cleveland] that they didn't have and nobody has, other than who has Shaquille, because he's a big guy in the middle that's playing really well. He was third-team All-NBA last year and he's very good. Put him with the rest of the Cavaliers and give them time, I'm sure they're going to be one of the better teams in the league. They already are."

...Speaking of Shaq, D'Antoni went so far as to compare Knicks injury-plagued big man Eddy Curry to O'Neal. "I know that Shaquille in any coach's system would be very positive and very good and I do know that Eddy, when he's ready to play will be very good and very positive," he said. Asked how soon Curry might return to practice, the coach said: "He's starting to run pretty hard and we're getting closer, that's all I know."