Diana Taurasi is next on the List

This week, Diana Taurasi joins Snooki and Heidi Montag on the list of Women We Don't Want our Daughters to Be Like.

My Dad often told me that if you have to cheat to win, it's not worth winning. Course, that was one of the reasons my Dad (and rest of the family) stopped playing board games with me. I hated to lose, and I would do almost anything to win. Steal Monopoly money when you're not looking, switch the dice, knock the whole board on the floor so we had to reset everything.

Now, I don't want to jump to conclusions regarding Diana Taurasi's double positive test for a banned stimulant called Modafinil. But if you connect the dots, it's suspicious, at the very least.

Over the summer, Taurasi, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, said she was giving serious consideration to taking off some time from either the WNBA, her European team, or both. Her reason was that her body needs a rest.

With that proclamation, the ownership of the Mercury doubled her salary to $100,000 and Taurasi signed a new multi-year contract. Not bad coin for about three months worth of basketball.

Unfortunately, most players in the WNBA don't think making between $49,000 and $100,000 for three months is enough, so many of them play overseas in the WNBA off season. Who can blame them. They can make sometimes ten times their WNBA salary playing in Russia, Australia or many European locales. Foreign owners also pamper their American stars with lavish perks like free use of expensive automobiles, free living quarters in fancy villas, free massages, clothing allowances, etc.

So Taurasi goes to her new foreign team late this fall, defending Turkish champ, Fenerbahce. This is where the positive drug test occurred.

Now, of course Taurasi denies ever taking Modafinil, and she told her former UConn coach Geno Auriemma as much. But how many drug cheaters have uttered that phrase before? Taurasi's agent emphasized in his media statement that Taurasi did not test positive for steroids or any recreational drugs.

That's an ironic defense because even though Modafinil is an ingredient in alertness medications (for people with sleep apnea, for example) it's also been proven to be a masking agent for steroids. That's why it's banned by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). Just ask former U.S. sprinter Kelli White, who won the 100- and 200-meter sprints at the 2003 World Championships, only to be stripped of her gold medals after testing for....yep, you guessed it...Modafinil.

So that's the primary reason that Taurasi joins the list of Women We Don't Want our Daughters to Be Like, but there's more.

Taurasi is, arguably, the best women's basketball player of all time to this point in history. She led UConn to consecutive national championships in 2002, 2003, 2004 and she won every conceivable award at the collegiate level. UConn fans are rabid, to say the least, and she's got thousands of little girls who look up to her.

As a professional, she was the #1 pick in the 2004 WNBA draft. Earned Rookie of the Year honors, and led Phoenix to the WNBA championship in 2007 and 2009. She's been a member of USA Basketball, helping the women capture gold medals at both the 2004 and the 2008 Olympic Games, becoming only the seventh female to win an NCAA championship, a WNBA championship and an Olympic gold medal.

Combine her WNBA salary ($100,000) with the minimum $500,000 she was receiving from Fenerbahce, and she was making a pretty nice salary.

As a result of her positive drug test, Taurasi has been dumped from her Turkish team. Goodbye half a million bucks. She also could face up to a two-year ban from international competition, which means goodbye 2012 Olympics in London.

Toss in her arrest last July when she was pulled over at 2:30 am in the Phoenix desert with a blood alcohol content of .17 and her speedometer pushing the far end of the spectrum. She was charged with excessive DUI and excessive speeding. Both charges were reduced to one, simple DUI (I'd like someone to explain the difference to me between excessive DUI and simple DUI). She spent one day in jail, out of her ten-day sentence.

Seems that when Geno Auriemma was gloating over the three national titles Taurasi helped him win, he forgot to teach her about real world stuff, like making good choices, honoring your obligations and measuring up to the little girls who idolize her.

P.S. Don't forget to tell your daughter that you love her.