This has gone far enough. Before the media start digging through my trash, I want to make one thing perfectly clear.

I am not dating Tyra Banks.

And if you guys don't back off with the Cameron Diaz rumors, I'm going to stop granting any interviews. Even to Barbara Walters.

Pardon me, I'm just trying to put myself in Chris Webber's place. He is perhaps the only man on earth who does not want anyone to know he is dating a Victoria's Secret model.

If you must have a skeleton in your closet, a lot of us would be happy it looks like Banks. But Webber threw a Sean Penn conniption last week after the Sacramento Bee wrote a story about him and Banks hanging out together.

"Y'all are talking about who the [expletive] I'm dating and how I'm living my [expletive] life," he fumed.

Webber then took a vow of silence, and has stopped speaking to Sacramento media. We know what you're thinking.

It serves those media jackals right. What business is it of theirs what sports stars do with their private lives?

If you feel that way, how would you feel if Halle Berry began showing up at Magic games? Then she and Tracy McGrady were spotted at local restaurants and getting manicures together?

Would it at all tickle your interest? Or would you say, "I don't care if T-Mac might escort Berry to the Academy Awards. Just give me his latest shooting percentage against the Eastern Conference!"

My guess is even Webber might be intrigued, even though it would be none of his business. What he and other insulated jock-celebrities don't realize is they make their lives everybody's business.

When you market yourself to an adoring public, you can't expect the fascination to turn off the minute you leave the court. And when you are the biggest celebrity in town, and you squire one of the world's most leered-after women around All-Star Weekend, you shouldn't expect people to ask you only about Hedo Turkoglu's defense.

"I don't see why [the media] has to run around every place you eat or buy food or whatever," Kings Coach Rick Adelman said. "If people think that's interesting, then they need to find other things to do with their lives."

Sure, only most of us have no lives. Since Banks won't date us, we have to live through Webber and our other heroes.

Life in a fishbowl can undoubtedly get old, even when you're splashing around with a swimsuit queen. But Webber doesn't seem to mind baring his soul when it helps sell a few of his CDs or comic books.

The media jackals are merely providing a service. Few people like to admit they have such trivial interests. But somebody must be reading those 8 billion National Enquirers, Examiners and Stars sold every week.

And it's not as if the paparazzi are chasing Webber through Paris tunnels on motorcycles. If reporters really wanted to invade some privacy, there are far juicier stories than Webber making goo-goo eyes with Banks.

Webber is usually one of the league's more affable players. He'll probably cool off and realize this is all part of the life he has chosen.

Nobody ever said dating a supermodel would be easy. We'll just have to try to make the best of it.