Topline
Kim Mulkey, the head coach of Louisiana State University‘s women’s basketball team, was on the defensive Saturday, threatening legal action against The Washington Post for what she described as a forthcoming “hit piece,” the latest controversy Mulkey has found herself in the center of.
Key Facts
Earlier this year, Mulkey seemed to criticize Caitlin Clark—the Iowa University star and all-time NCAA scoring leader—saying LSU didn’t have players “shooting 40 times a game,” and while Mulkey didn’t mention Clark, it seemed clear she was talking about the rival player on another top team.
LSU and the University of South Carolina brawled during an SEC championship game earlier this year, but while South Carolina’s head coach apologized for her team’s behavior, Mulkey didn’t, and instead said she wished South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, who pushed an LSU player, had shoved LSU’s Angel Reese, who is much taller.
In March 2021—as the pandemic still raged—she criticized the COVID-19 testing policy put in place during the March Madness tournament that year and argued the tournament should “dump” the testing protocols so that all of the players could compete in the tournament’s final games.
A month later, during her first press conference as head coach at LSU, Mulkey dramatically ripped her “damn mask” off, saying she had “a lot to say.”
In 2017, Mulkey then publicly dismissed a sexual misconduct scandal at Baylor University, where she was coach, saying “the problems that we have at Baylor are no different than the problems at any other school in America,” but after many criticized her remarks as insensitive to victims, she later apologized.
In 2013, ESPN published a report that said Mulkey urged her former basketball player, Brittney Griner, to hide her sexuality while she played at Baylor University, with Griner telling the sports outlet, “the coaches thought if it seemed like they condoned it, people wouldn’t let their kids play for Baylor.”
When Griner was detained in Russia while playing in an international basketball league Mulkey refused to comment on her former player’s detention.
News Peg
Mulkey read a prepared statement Saturday ahead of LSU’s NCAA tournament game accusing a Washington Post reporter of preparing a negative piece on her, of tricking her former assistant coaches into speaking with him, and offering anonymity to former players who “say negative things about [Mulkey].” The LSU coach said she hired a law firm to sue the Post if “they publish a false story about me.” She accused the reporter of imposing a “ridiculous deadline” on her and LSU to answer questions for the story they could not meet because of NCAA finals. Though she didn’t name the reporter, Post reporter Kent Babb confirmed to the Associated Press he was working on a story about Mulkey.
Crucial Quote
“It’s these kinds of sleazy tactics and hatchet jobs that people are just tired of,” Mulkey said.
Tangent
Mulkey has been the head coach at LSU for the past three years and helped earn the university its first national title in either men’s or women’s basketball in 2023. Before that, she spent more than 20 years at Baylor University as a head coach and won three national titles. In 2020, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
