Taurasi Cleared, But Cloud Remains

Writing a sports column is a funny thing. Inevitably, when a team (or player) is doing well, it seems there’s not a whole lot to write about. When a team is doing poorly, the words seem to flow because the emotion is right at the forefront of your mind.

It is for this reason that many readers think the columnist must have some vendetta against their favorite team or player. The Courant’s Jeff Jacobs is probably called “UConn hater” more than his own name. It is also the reason people always complain about too much bad news in the papers and on their nightly news. It’s not some conspiracy by the news media, it’s just human nature.

It is with this in mind that I mention that the best player in UConn women’s basketball history has been in the news recently: one bad story, one good.

Now which do I talk about?

A few weeks ago, Diana Taurasi was suspended from her Turkish league team, Fenerbahce, for testing positive for the illegal substance modafinil, a banned stimulant. It was big-time news on all the sports programs – not just locally, but also on ESPN and national newspapers that don’t cover the WNBA with any regularity. Her contract was then terminated by her club. She could’ve been ruled ineligible for the 2012 Olympics.

Obviously this was big news. Taurasi is almost certainly the most well-known female team-sports athlete in the country, and maybe the world. (Maybe Marta, the Brazilian soccer star, is bigger; while some tennis players are certainly bigger in non-team sports.) Short of Olympic athletes (where it seems commonplace), I’m not sure I remember any female athlete being busted for performance-enhancing drugs in the United States. So, yes, this was a big story.

The news that came out Wednesday should have been equally big. It wasn’t. Taurasi was cleared of all wrongdoing. She had maintained her innocence all along, even going to the extent to take (and pass) a lie detector test. The lab that tested both her ‘A’ and ‘B’ samples messed up. Oops. False positive. Sorry about that. Go about your business Ms. Taurasi. Have a nice day.

Like I mentioned initially, we columnists and the readers often simplify things into good and bad, light and dark, you love my team and you hate my team. There’s no one side to blame. It is everyone’s fault. 

So this column is about the grey area.

Who gives Taurasi her credibility back now that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lab in Ankara, Turkey, took it away from her? No one can. That’s the real story, because that is reality. Some people will forever think Taurasi was shooting up anabolic steroids while playing in Azerbaijan and she’s a horrible cheat who never deserves to play basketball again.

The WADA may punish the lab (as it was previously in 2009), but that won’t rank on any newscast. The mainstream media will always be a slave to the news hole or circulation or the Nielsen ratings. That’s the grey area. It’s not good or bad.

Taurasi will come back and play again soon. She’ll play in the WNBA and she’ll play well. She’ll play in the Olympics and she’ll likely even play in Europe again. She’ll play basketball because that’s what she does. Some people will love her (my feeling is most UConn fans will understandably fall in this camp regardless). And some people will think she’s a steroid-abusing cheat.

That’s not good or bad. Light or dark. It just is. Grey.