I told my friends I wouldn’t do it. Write about the Kirilenko mess. It’s all been said. But, I just don’t get it. So I have to say this. AK is right and the Jazz are wrong.

The common fan sentiment is that AK is the cause of the problem and it has effected the team negatively. I see it as the Jazz causing problems for AK and that’s what is hurting the team. I fault Jazz brass for 80% of the problem they have with AK. Our dear Russian gets the other 20% of the blame. Here’s why:

1) Kirilenko is NOT AND NEVER WILL BE A JUMP SHOOTER.
I think this point is best made in the form of a letter I’d like to write to Sloan and Co.

Dear Jazz,

Please stop trying to make Andrei into a perimeter player on both offense and defense. Please get a refund on whatever you agreed to pay Hornacek to be his personal coach. Please stop playing the man as a 6′9″ small forward. You know who else is 6′9″ on the Jazz? Carlos Boozer. Put him at small forward and lets see how he does. This mentality drives me nuts.

When AK was the Power Forward - he was an All-Star. Trade the man. Get whatever you can for him. It’s not Andrei’s fault that you didn’t realize this.

Bottom line - You don’t ask someone to play against their strengths - you play to them. You don’t see Pat Riley playing Alonzo Mourning as a guard because he has Shaq at center. Some players can play multiple positions in the league. AK is not one of them and there is nothing wrong with that.

2) AK has every right to voice his frustrations with how he is being used. Fans - please stop equating your job to those of an NBA player. Until somebody pays you $14 million dollars to do something - you are not the same. I think of it this way. AK has every right to complain about his role when he’s no longer being told to do what he was paid (er… given a contract) for. I love hearing people say he should keep his mouth shut solely based on the fact that he gets paid more in one year than I will make my entire life. Let’s follow this logic through:

Say I make $80k as a successful lawyer. I love my job and have worked hard to be the best Lawyer possible. Then one day my boss tells me he wants me to be a clerk. I’ll still get $80k and help the firm, so I should be happy. Guess what - I’m going to complain. I will have two choices. Do the work, or go somewhere else. AK doesn’t have that luxury. He is stuck with the Jazz. So for him to be frustrated with the organization is completely understandable. He’s been told to play a role he has no interest in playing. The fact that he backed his comments up by saying he was willing to be released from his contract tells me he really means it and wants a change.

Let’s not forget that Andrei tried to adjust and “be a team player” for an entire season. It didn’t work. Like everyone reading this, I cringed whenever he took a jump shot last year. This was a man TRYING to be something he isn’t. In the short career of an NBA player, a year is enough time to try something out and determine if a bigger change is needed. I would be frustrated if I was Andrei too.

3) AK was right to take this public. The Jazz were wrong in not trying to fix this earlier with a trade. Read through the comments online and in the papers. AK makes every indication that he brought his sentiments to Larry Miller, Kevin O’ Conner, and Jerry Sloan long before he expressed his desire publicly. Obviously, the fans have no idea what was said or if AK even really made an effort to keep this private. But I haven’t seen or heard of any Jazz brass denying that he tried to talk to them.

So I’m on Andrei’s side. He has not said he won’t play, try hard, or do anything to hurt the team. He’s not Allen Iverson refusing to go to practice. He’s not like countless professional athletes threatening to hold out from camp. He wants to be traded and he seems to have finally gotten heard by taking things public. He wasn’t getting anywhere keeping this all in-house and behind doors.

Yes, Kirilenko deserves some of the blame. He needs to be seen by his teammates as a hard worker dedicated to winning. He needs to put these trade demands behind him now and play his heart out. I have every bit of confidence that he will try to do just that.

Let’s be honest with ourselves people, this current catastrophe isn’t AK’s fault, it’s the organization’s. The Jazz could have traded him after the playoffs. All they were dealing with then was a player who had a down year. No “fire sale” deal was needed. They failed to do that. Now they have a player coming off a bad year and demanding a trade. I can’t wait until mid season when things haven’t changed, and AK’s trade value is even lower. He wants to cut his losses and move on. Why haven’t the Jazz? Will they ever?

That’s where it stands. Someone once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Trying to make AK fit into Sloan’s system for another year is insane. AK realizes this. I’m surprised other people don’t. I’m even more surprised that they actually blame him for it.