Taurasi's backup sample reportedly tests positive

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Taurasi's backup sample reportedly tests positive for a banned stimulant: Superstar Diana Taurasi's backup doping sample came back positive and she faces a possible two-year ban, Turkish news reports said Monday.

The Turkish basketball federation did not immediately confirm reports by the Dogan News agency and private NTV news channel. Neither news outlet cited a source. The Phoenix Mercury player, a four-time WNBA scoring champion, tested positive for the banned stimulant modafinil while playing in Turkey's professional league. She was leading that league in scoring at 24.6 points per game.

"(We've) seen those reports, but there is no official report," Taurasi's lawyer, Howard Jacobs, said. "It's disconcerting that it would come out before they finished the process."

Taurasi, 28, was tested after a Nov. 13 game and the positive result was confirmed last month. If the positive "B" sample finding is confirmed by Turkey's basketball federation, it could lead to a ban of up to two years for Taurasi. It could also put Taurasi's 2012 Olympics standing with the U.S. national team in jeopardy.

The International Olympic Committee bars any athlete given a doping penalty of six months or more from competing in the next Games. Taurasi has helped the U.S. team win gold medals at the past two Olympics.

Media

ESPN announcer was pulled from Fiesta Bowl radio coverage: ESPN pulled announcer Ron Franklin from its radio coverage of Saturday's Fiesta Bowl after he reportedly berated a female colleague the previous day.

Sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards, seeking to clarify the situation, wrote in an e-mail to USA Today that Franklin called her "sweet baby" in a condescending tone. Edwards said Franklin made the comment during a production meeting before Friday's Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Edwards said she told Franklin not to address her in such a manner, adding Franklin responded to her objection by using a derogatory term.

Edwards and Franklin worked the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Afterward, a colleague reported the production-meeting incident to ESPN management, Edwards said.

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ESPN's Franklin apologizes for comments

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sportscaster Ron Franklin, yanked from calling Saturday's Fiesta Bowl, apologized Monday for alleged sexist comments made to a colleague.

Franklin was scheduled to do the play-by-play of the Fiesta Bowl on ESPN Radio but network officials told SI.com he had been pulled from the broadcast.

The move came after the Web site SportsbyBrooks reported Franklin had drawn the wrath of the broadcaster for allegedly referring to colleague Jeannine Edwards as "sweet cakes" and an "a--hole" before the start of a meeting with Florida State coaches Friday before the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

"I said some things I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry," Franklin said in a statement issued by ESPN. "I deserved to be taken off the Fiesta Bowl."

The network said it has replaced Franklin with Dave Lamont.

"We made a late play-by-play change to the Fiesta Bowl radio team," ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told SI.com. "We're not going to get into specifics other than to say adhering to our personal conduct policies and showing respect for colleagues are of the utmost importance to our company and we take them extremely seriously."

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ESPN fires announcer for calling female colleague 'sweet baby'

When most people think of , what comes to mind is usually basic information that's not particularly interesting or beneficial. But there's a lot more to than just the basics.



Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there's more to than you may have first thought.

ESPN announcer Ron Franklin was fired by the network on Tuesday after making made a derogatory remark to sideline reporter Jeanne Edwards in a meeting before the Fiesta Bowl. Franklin had been pulled from the game's coverage after the incident.

It's yet another incident at the sports network in which a female employee has been subjected to harassing behavior by a male co-worker. Popular television host Tony Kornheiser was suspended last year for comments made on-air about the wardrobe of "SportsCenter" anchor Hannah Storm, and former baseball analysts Harold Reynolds and Steve Phillips were fired for separate incidents involving demeaning behavior toward female employees. Current "Monday Night Football" announcer Mike Tirico was disciplined for harassment in 1992. And Deadspin has been zealous in its pursuit of other stories involving executives and other off-camera employees.

[Related: ESPN anchors' inappropriate on-air reaction to NFL coach's firing]

Franklin was reprimanded after a complaint was made about his behavior toward Edwards at a meeting. "Why don't you leave this to the boys, sweet baby?" Franklin allegedly said. When Edwards objected to the derogatory language, Franklin responded, "okay then, [expletive]."

The 68-year-old play-by-play announcer later apologized and said he deserved to be taken off the Fiesta Bowl broadcast. It didn't save him, as ESPN cut ties with him on Tuesday. In a statement, the network said briefly, "based on what occurred last Friday, we have ended our relationship with him."

Though the high-profile ESPN incidents make it seem as though the network is a hotbed for boorish behavior, Dan Lebowitz, the executive director of Sport in Society at Northeastern University told the Washington Post that it's no worse than in other male-dominated businesses.

[Rewind: NHL announcer apologizes for comments not meant for air]

"I hate to single out ESPN for having a dysfunctional culture," Lebowitz told the Post's Paul Farhi. "It just mimics an inherent ill in our society ... It just seems more sensational at ESPN because they're a very public entity."

Once the story proved to have legs throughout the holiday weekend, ESPN had little choice but to fire Franklin. The network should be praised for taking a stand, but the fact that it waited four days suggests that if the Franklin story had gone away quickly, he'd still have a job today.

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