Nets' new forward, Andrei Kirilenko, has permission from wife to cheat once a year

A lot of basketball wives acknowledge the frustration of NBA groupies hanging around and worry that their man may stray a little out-of-bounds while on one of their long road trips.

One player's wife has found a way to keep her husband in check — at least 364 days of the year.

Masha Lopotova — the wife of new Brooklyn Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko — revealed  that she and her husband have an agreement which allows him to have sex with another woman once a year.

"Male athletes in this country are extremely attractive. They get chased by women. It's hard to resist. It's the way men are by nature," she told ESPN The Magazine when her husband first hit the big time.

"'If I know about it, it's not cheating," reasoned the Missus.

Kirilenko, who reportedly signed a two-year deal with the Nets worth an estimated $3.18 million a year,  said he had no plans to exercise his "allowance" with his pop star wife, although he joked that girls would be lining up outside his hotel door.

Since then it isn't clear if Kirilenko has ever taken advantage of the free pass, but the couple remain together and so something is clearly working.

They have been married for 13 years and have two sons Fedya, age 11, and Stepan, age six. In January 2011, Andrei and Masha acquired American citizenship. 

Lopatova, who goes by the stage name MaLo, is the daughter of Russian basketball player Andrei Lopatov. She met Kirilenko at a youth basketball camp in Moscow. Soon afterwards he appeared in one of her music videos.

"I find that people in this country are really interested in athletes and their [families], for some reason. They don't want to know what kind of books I read, but they prefer to know what kind of underwear I wear," she told ESPN.

This gives playing an away game a whole new meaning.