BUT WHY WOULD HE? Masha Lopatova says NBA-player hubby Andrei Kirilenko can stray once a year, but why bother when he has her?! (
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For one night a year, he’s allowed to say “da!”
New Brooklyn Net Andrei Kirilenko is permitted to cheat on his Russian pop-star wife without her crying foul, thanks to a unique “allowance” she grants him.
“What’s forbidden is always desirable. And athletes, particularly men, are susceptible to all the things they are offered,” Masha Lopatova, 34, told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2006 when the 6-foot-9 forward played for the Utah Jazz.
“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!”
Lopatova said the goal of the short-lived free agency is to nip the Russian-born hoopster’s temptation to sleep around during the seven months he’s on the road.
“Male athletes in this country are extremely attractive,” Lopatova once told ESPN.
“They get chased by women. It’s hard to resist. It’s the way men are by nature. When I’m aware and I let him do it, it’s not cheating.”
Kirilenko, 32, knows the score — he can have sex with another woman for one night and one night only. Affairs won’t be tolerated.
And the agreement isn’t reciprocal, Lopatova has claimed.
“Of course it was a surprise,” Kirilenko once said.
“I’m not planning to do anything. But she said ‘if you want to do it, you can do it.’ ”
The couple has been married for 13 years and have two sons, ages 11 and 6.
In Utah, Kirilenko seemed in no hurry to play the field — even adding that the slow Beehive State family life was rubbing off on him.
“I want more and more kids, like a typical Salt Lake City guy,” he told ESPN.
“If something isn’t allowed you, you want to get it,” he added. “But if it is allowed to you, you will not need it.”
Kirilenko signed a two-year pact with the Nets on Friday for $3.18 million a year — leaving behind the Minnesota Timberwolves’ offer of $10.2 million for the upcoming season.
Shortly after the news broke, NBA owners were calling for an investigation into the possibility of a side deal between Kirilenko and the Nets — owned by his Russian-billionaire friend Mikhail Prokhorov — which would be a way for the Nets to sidestep the league’s salary cap, Yahoo Sports reported.
It’s unclear whether the Russian-born forward has ever used his allowance.
Kirilenko and his wife didn’t respond to messages left by The Post.