<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Andrei Kirilenko had a difficult and sometimes emotional time with the Utah Jazz last season, but recent interviews in two Russian publications seem to indicate he is quite comfortable with his Utah surroundings, especially the predominant local religion and landscape. In translations done for the Deseret Morning News of interviews in both the nationwide Russian newspaper Izvestia and on the Web site www.sovsport.ru, the Jazz's Russian forward said that since he is very much a family man and does not smoke or drink and rarely even has coffee, "If you want to crudely reason, then yes ? in spirit I am Mormon." Kirilenko was interviewed while working with the Russian national team, which will play in Eurobasket in Spain next week hoping to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. Both publications had big interest in Kirilenko's impressions of Utah, asking if everyone in Salt Lake City is Mormon, if Mormons try to get him to convert, if they bother him. "No, not at all," he told Izvestia. "On the contrary I like their way of life. I don't smoke and don't drink alcohol. I drink coffee very seldom, but can't imagine my table without tea. And nobody forbids me to drink it at my convenience."</div> Source: Desert News
