Andrei makes case

His price tag is set, and Andrei Kirilenko — seeking a max-money contract extension from the Jazz — doesn't seem willing to mark himself down.

"I want to get the money which I'm worth," said Kirilenko, whose agent, Marc Fleisher, is engaged in sputtering contract-extension negotiations with the Jazz. "That's it."

Actually, that's just the beginning.

On Wednesday, Fleisher said, "We're far apart on what we (the Jazz and Kirilenko's camp) both see his value as being." A deadline of Oct. 31 to either agree to terms or risk having the Jazz's 23-year-old All-Star forward become a restricted free agent next summer is fast approaching. So Thursday, Kirilenko himself made a case for why he will not back down from his demand for a six-year, $86 million deal.

"I think every NBA player," he said, "is like product, in the NBA's market.

"You know, if you go into the store and want to buy milk, it costs three bucks. And (if) you say, 'Well, no, I don't think it costs three bucks, it costs two bucks,' . . . it's still three bucks."

Kirilenko thinks he's worth 86 million bucks — not 80, not 76, not a penny less than big man Paul Gasol recently managed to wrestle from the Memphis Grizzlies.

And if he does not get it, well, Kirilenko doesn't know what he'll do.

"This is my job — to play basketball," he said. "I have like 10, or 13, years more (to) my career. I can't do anything except basketball.

"So, you know, if I don't get money which I'm worth, maybe I should change my job," Kirilenko added. "Maybe I should go to work like a journalist, and I will cost like, I don't know, a thousand bucks a month."

The Jazz and Kirilenko are believed to be about $10 million apart.

Fleisher said he is "not optimistic" the gap will be bridged, especially since he is not willing to discount his client.

The Jazz feel they deserve some sort of significant monetary break for agreeing to give Kirilenko his big-bucks deal now — but you won't hear that from Kevin O'Connor, the club's senior vice president for basketball operations.

"Our negotiations will stay in-house," O'Connor said Thursday. "Look," he added, "Andrei's agent, what he's trying to do is get Andrei a deal. If he wants to talk in the papers and go public, that's great. I've got no comment."