dave submitted a story from the Salt Lake Tribune about how Jazz player Andrei Kirilenko's wife gives him a "woman allowance."

Masha Lopatova, a former Russian pop star who has been married to the Jazz forward for nearly six years, understands the temptation NBA players are faced with as they travel around the country for seven months a year. And she believes that forbidding something only makes it more tempting. That's why, she revealed in a story in the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, she allows Kirilenko an "allowance" of one night per year with another woman.

"What's forbidden is always desirable. And athletes, particularly men, are susceptible to all the things they are offered," Lopatova said before the Jazz's loss to Charlotte on Wednesday. "It's the same way raising children - If I tell my child, 'No pizza, no pizza, no pizza,' what does he want more than anything? Pizza.

"So this is the arrangement that Andrei and I have," she said, adding, in the spirit of openness, that she does not have a reciprocal agreement with her husband. "If I know about it, it's not cheating."

Kirilenko, according to the magazine story written by Salt Lake City freelance writer Chad Nielsen, has no plans to exercise his "allowance."

"Of course it was a surprise," Kirilenko said. "I'm not planning to do anything. But she said, 'If you want to do it, you can do it.' "

So really, now two nights with another woman in a year is forbidden for him, which by her logic, makes it desirable for him. So she should allow him 2 nights with another woman. But then he'll want 3... The obvious solution is to let him be with another woman all the time. And to Andrei's wife: Nice pizza analogy! If there's anything that parallels wanting to cheat on your wife, it's wanting pizza. They straddle the same moral ground and what kid that wants pizza doesn't also want to cheat on someone? Oh wait, I forgot loophole #3843: It's not cheating if they know about it. It comes right after #3842: It's not cheating if it's not the same zip code.