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Doug Christie getting reality show?

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Kings guard Doug Christie and his wife Jackie are planning a reality-TV show about their marriage. While it's not a typical NBA union, the couple has had some memorable moments.

Doug, the former Raptor who plays for the Sacramento Kings, is famously lovey-dovey with his wife of 11 years, Jackie, who in turn has garnered a reputation for enthusiastically protecting her territory. He signals her repeatedly during games, raising his left arm while extending an index finger and a pinkie as many as 50 or 60 times a game. It's a gesture of amour, and she is almost always in the arena to see it, flying on the team charter to many road games, even following the team bus from the hotel to the arena, talking to Doug on her cell phone during the trip.

Though the Raptors traded the Christies to Sacramento in 2000, club employees still tell stories about how Jackie sternly forbade her husband to be interviewed by women sportscasters; how she once laid her hands on a female fan who got too close to her man.

Jackie confirmed a report last night that the couple is currently in negotiations with a U.S. cable channel to star in their own reality-TV series. "It'll be about me and Doug and our relationship," she said last night, sipping a beer in her third-row seat at the Air Canada Centre. "There's been a lot of misconceptions about us over the years. A lot of things have been misconstrued. ... Now the truth will come out.

"I don't have Doug on any leash, under no thumb, no nothing. But we want to send a message that it's cool to be committed. We respect each other. He respects me."

The prospect of a Christies-based show drew smiles and mixed reactions around locker rooms last night.

Jackie Christie said she and her husband want their show to "educate people on relationships." And thanks to MTV the couple has the potential to become the most talked about couple in sports since DiMaggio and Monroe.