She said Kirilenko doesn't want to demand things, he just "doesn't want to look bad and have a big contract and not play."

It was then I decided this was not your typical play-me-or-trade-me NBA story. It was a story of an honestly nice couple in a business that is largely unforgiving. If she wanted, she could always play the diva wife, living in another city during the season or complaining that she isn't in Paris or New York. But she has gone on record saying she likes her two kids being raised in Salt Lake. Her commitment seems real.

She just opened a clothing store at The Gateway that caters to upscale, urban buyers.

Instead of berating Sloan or owner Larry H. Miller, she said almost apologetically that she just wants to figure out her husband's problem. She worries about him the way everyone should worry about his or her spouse.

She wants to know he's all right.

Her husband, too, has shown something rare. Although crying at interviews isn't normal in the NBA, it's not just that. While it's debatable whether his play has earned more minutes this year than he's received, he has shown he isn't a selfish bore. He has granted countless interview requests, at a time when he is clearly vulnerable. That can't be said for many NBA players. And while he has questioned Sloan, he has never shown signs of wanting to check out and collect his millions.

There was something in his wife's desperate attempt to help her husband the night of Game 2 that seemed innocent to me. She made no threats. How did she know the media wouldn't cast her as a meddling spouse?

Or that people wouldn't laugh at her solution?

To her it was worth the risk.

That alone makes this a story to remember.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com