Utah Jazz forward Boris Diaw doesn't go a day without his daily dose of coffee, and now neither do many of his teammates.
The 34-year-old Frenchman turned his team onto the caffeinated beverage after being traded last summer from the San Antonio Spurs, and now it's practically a tradition to sip espresso before games. Diaw has even traveled with his own mini barista bar.
But what if Diaw, the Jazz and the countless other athletes who regularly consume caffeine had to give it up? According to Russian Federal Microbiological Agency chief Vladimir Uiba, that could be coming.
"Caffeine," he told Russian news agency TASS last week, "is currently on WADA's waiting list of prohibited substances. If it eventually makes its way into the list of the prohibited substances, we will be forced to recommend everyone against drinking coffee as well as soft drinks containing caffeine.
"Theoretically, it can happen this year."
Uiba is right about the substance being on the World Anti-Doping Agency's watch list for in-competition prohibited substances, but he's likely incorrect in insinuating athletes will have to give up coffee, soda and other naturally caffeinated beverages and food all together.
"Generally speaking, WADA is extremely careful that normal food consumption does not interfere with anti-doping tests," WADA spokesman Maggie Durand said Tuesday.
WADA added caffeine to its monitoring program for 2017 so experts could study whether athletes are using the substance "with the intent of enhancing performance."
WADA's study will continue through September, at which point the agency will issue a three-month notice that the substance will be added to the prohibited list the next year.
Caffeine has been a prohibited substance before, but it was removed in 2003 to prevent athletes "who ... drink cola or coffee from testing positive to banned substances," Agence France-Presse reported at the time.
The old threshold from when caffeine was previously on the prohibited list was 12 micrograms per milliliter, which amounts to about "four Starbucks lattes" ingested within a couple of hours, according to Men's Health.
Traveling man
Matt Griffin's victory in the New Zealand Open last year helped him win the Order of Merit on the PGA Tour of Australasia and earned him a spot in his first World Golf Championship. It also created a scheduling nightmare.
The Mexico Championship was one week before he defends his title in the New Zealand Open.
Griffin left Mexico City on Monday morning for a flight to Los Angeles, a connection to Auckland and then about an hour flight to Queenstown. He was due to arrive shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday to defend his title on a different course (Millbrook Resort) without having a chance to play in the pro-am.
"I knew it was going to be difficult," Griffin said. "But to get the opportunity to play one of these, I was just happy to have the chance."
It's all in the names
Brad Rock of Salt Lake City's Deseret News, on reports that Mitt Romney and his son, Tagg, are looking to buy a share of the Yankees: "With names like that, how could they not?"
Sports on 03/09/2017