http://www.sltrib.com/s****ts/ci_3568705
Kirilenko's face flushed a deep crimson Friday as he gamely acknowledged
that his wife has granted permission for him to be unfaithful with another
woman once per basketball season. The couple revealed that salacious
detail
of their marriage to a writer for ESPN The Magazine, but Kirilenko said he
was shocked at the reaction
generated by his "allowance," as the couple call it.
"I didn't mean to take so much attention," Kirilenko said
good-naturedly
after Friday morning's shootaround. "All media in the nation. . . .
Yesterday, it was everywhere."
What made the commotion so odd, Kirilenko revealed later, was that his
wife conceived of the arrangement a couple of years ago. It just never
became public knowledge until the Russian couple were profiled by Salt
Lake
City freelance writer Chad Nielsen in the current issue of ESPN The
Magazine.
"It's interesting [because] I didn't come up with it. [Nielsen] just
said, 'Is it true?' '' Kirilenko said. "It is true. I'm not lying."
No, but he is shocking some of the people who know him best, because he
is normally a quiet, unassuming Utah resident. So when news spread of his
"allowance," Kirilenko said, the phone began ringing.
"Masha got lots of calls yesterday," Kirilenko said. " 'Masha, are you
crazy? What's going on? Why?' Masha said, 'Because it's true.' "
Now that the story has circulated on TV and radio shows around the
country, Kirilenko understands what to expect in opposing arenas. "I know.
But I'm ready for the jokes," he said.
He hasn't heard many in his own locker room, however. Kirilenko mostly
keeps to himself; he usually spends time before games sitting quietly at
his
locker, reading Russian paperbacks.
"If it was different, like one of [the rookies], we might joke a lot.
But
Andrei, he's a soft-spoken guy," said point guard Milt Palacio. "It would
bother me [to be the subject of such stories], but I wouldn't ask him
about
it."
He might as well, Kirilenko said. What's left to hide?
"You know everything now," he joked.
Kirilenko said in the ESPN story that he had never taken his wife up on
her offer to look the other way, and he repeated Friday that he doesn't
agree with the popular *****sment that he's lucky to have the op****tunity.
"I'm lucky," Kirilenko said, "because I have a wife like Masha, not
because of that situation."
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