One of the lesser and more predictable tragedies attached to the soon-to-begin manslaughter trial of Jayson Williams is the media’s conditioned portrayal of Williams as yet “another” moneyed athlete whose overblown sense of entitlement has landed him in big trouble.

And that’s just wrong.

I don’t doubt that Williams is guilty of something criminal beyond his previous imagination. And I don’t doubt that Williams is guilty of a panic-driven attempt to cover up his crime.

Williams, after all, on Feb. 14, 2002, was just a big kid with lots of adult toys, including guns that he was in the habit of indiscriminately discharging. Limo driver Gus Christofi was likely as much a victim of Williams’ adolescent devices as he was the victim of one of his adult ones.

And yet, based on what we well know about Williams, Christofi likely was as much a victim of Williams’ generosity as he was of any criminal act.

It may be well worth knowing that Christofi was shot dead, two years ago, because Williams was not the kind of man or child who would have the limo driver wait in the car while Williams threw an impromptu house party. I have little doubt that Christofi’s presence in Williams’s mansion was predicated upon Williams’ sense of non-exclusionary party-throwing.

Williams’ material and spiritual generosity was such that he’d show up in a hospital – unannounced, unscheduled and unpublicized – to cheer up seriously ill kids.

He never said no to any charity fund-raiser. And upon arrival he’d do anything asked of him – and then more. He’d work the room, busting chops, persuading people to dig deeper. Table-to-table he’d go, leaving ’em laughing, leaving strangers to chorus, “What a great guy.”

He was the kind of pro athlete who actively fostered good will with sportswriters, and not just those with the larger newspapers, because he wanted so much for them and their readers to like him. Williams always thought that it was important for everyone to like him.

That doesn’t make Williams guilty of anything less than what he’s accused of. But the reflexive and easy portrayal of Williams as just the latest in a series – another pro athlete with a twisted sense of privilege – doesn’t do Williams justice.

Williams’ sense of entitlement always ran toward a different extreme: While in his company, everyone was entitled to have a good time. And I’m convinced that it was ‘that’ sense of entitlement that cost Gus Christofi his life and soon may cost Williams a considerable piece of his.

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Roger and Out: A lot of folks have certainly taken this Roger Clemens thing very hard and very personally.

Others long ago recognized Clemens’ true-blue Yankee declarations as the half-a-con that they were. After all, upon winning his 300th game, he was quick to remove his Yankee cap in exchange for an endorsement cap in pursuit of relative and additional nickels. TV cameras and newspaper photographers often serve as the most insightful sportswriters – and in no words or less.

And then there are those who would seize the Clemens story for some cross-promotional, artificial light sunbathing. Wednesday, on ESPN Radio, morning drive host Mike Greenberg spoke with ESPN colleague Jayson Stark. Greenberg congratulated Stark for being the only guy who last fall publicly suggested that Clemens’ retirement was not permanent.

“What did you know that everybody else didn’t know?” Greenberg asked. Stark modestly responded that he was due to get one right.

Puh-leese. In the days just before Clemens “retired,” on the day he retired and in the days immediately following, the prevailing multi-media angle – here, there and everywhere – was hang on to those gift receipts, Clemens’ retirement was more a probability than a fact.

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As the longtime president and builder of HBO Sports, Seth Abraham was one of the most accessible, quotable and out-front execs in TV or sports.

Then, in October of 2000, Abraham went to work in the weird world of Cablevision, serving as president of Madison Square Garden’s entertainment division. And, as if entered into a witness protection program, that was the last anyone who used to regularly hear from him heard from him. Abraham this week resigned from MSG.