LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey preemptively attacked The Washington Post when rumors surfaced that a hit piece on her would drop sometime during the NCAA Tournament. She was even blamed by some for not doing enough to free Brittney Griner from prison in Russia. Good luck making sense of that one.
Well anyway, WaPo missed a huge opportunity here. They could’ve released Kent Babb’s paywall-restricted deep dive on Mulkey on April Fools’ Day and really caused some chaos. If LSU and Iowa advance to the Elite Eight, it’d pit Mulkey’s team against Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes on that fickle holiday.
Instead, Babb’s article dropped on Saturday and landed with a thud. Mulkey was making fun of it before her Tigers took on UCLA, and presumably before she had time to read it.
Kim Mulkey reacts to the publishing of the Washington Post story on her—an hour and a half before LSU’s Sweet 16 matchup.
“Are you really surprised by the timing of it?”pic.twitter.com/wEoYcTc51H
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 30, 2024
Mulkey just seems like kind of a jerk. She’s been a raging success as a coach, though, with a two-decade tenure at Baylor preceding her stint at LSU that began in 2021. If you want to be ultra generous, she’s the less-accolades ladies college hoops equivalent of Bill Belichick. There’s a method to her supposed madness, or maybe moodiness is a better way to put it.
Also worth noting the bias here from the jump. Babb penned a critical profile of Tigers head football coach Brian Kelly. He apparently has a bone to pick with the athletic department in Baton Rouge for reasons unknown to me.
As for the substance of Babb’s Mulkey “hit piece”, well, it just seems like the long-tenured coach is more “old-fashioned” than anything else.
There's a fire rising in women's college basketball. And while America has been soaking in this storybook moment, Kim Mulkey *is* the fire — burning for 40 years, laying waste to everything (and everyone) in her path. https://t.co/ENZhf18GVP
— Kent Babb (@kentbabb) March 30, 2024
There’s a good chunk of quotes from Griner, where she asserts that Mulkey didn’t fully accept her for who she was because of her sexual orientation and tattoos. Others who played for Mulkey or were in her orbit said she encouraged players to downplay/hide their sexuality if they were gay. “Multiple players” said shame was a tactic Mulkey frequently deployed as motivation, and in some specific cases, fat-shaming. She also recommended players seek out assistant coaches to talk through any hurt feelings because she essentially didn’t have time for dealing with players’ emotions.
Is any of this information a major surprise? Some of what Babb highlights is already public knowledge, such as when Mulkey defended ex-Baylor football coach Art Briles amid the program’s off-field scandal, which she apologized for. Then there’s mention of her resistance to COVID protocols. Again, already on public record.
This piece on Mulkey is thousands of words, and unless I’m missing something, that’s about the most damning stuff in there. Does it suck that she’s seemingly not as tolerant of diversity you’d hope? Sure. Would you like a coach to ideally connect with players on a more personal level? I would. But hey, you don’t go to play for Kim Mulkey if you don’t expect some extremely tough love. That’s like going into a steakhouse and expecting a predominantly vegan menu.
Mulkey has carried a fiery reputation with her for her entire career. Nothing truly illuminating to see here. Not saying that Babb isn’t a good writer or reporter, because he clearly did his legwork and due diligence. What he wrote is just not what anyone would categorize as a “hit piece.”
The reactions on Basketball Twitter reflect how the would-be Mulkey hit piece doesn’t really have any teeth. Like it’s so toothless that I don’t think Mulkey has any grounds at all for the lawsuit she’s threatening The Washington Post with.
Kim Mulkey threatening to unleash hell on the Washington Post for what turned out to be a bit of a snoozer profile whose main thesis is that the most famous asshole in women’s basketball is in fact an asshole…very funny.
— Luis Paez-Pumar (@lppny) March 30, 2024
The Kim Mulkey WaPo story wasn't a hit piece as much as it was a profile that did a pretty good job of explaining why Mulkey defaults to thinking it would be a hit piece.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) March 30, 2024
Me after reading the Kim Mulkey “hit piece” pic.twitter.com/zF5ddZJizx
— christan (no i), ß (@Snacks4Tweets) March 30, 2024
She was mad about this? It reads just like the caption. She comes off as a hard ass, conservative woman who is pissed off at the world and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Far from a hit piece, more of a “never meet your hero” kind of story.
— Mr. B🔱 (@YeLordofSarcasm) March 30, 2024
The Kim Mulkey article was a nothing burger!! pic.twitter.com/nWsZwJ1R8F
— Van (@vanman_1000) March 30, 2024
Kim Mulkey did all that gaslighting and intimidating at the press conference for a story that wasn’t even a bombshell lol. Just reaffirmed what a lot of people already know about her.
— Chris Williamson (@CWilliamson44) March 30, 2024
The Kim Mulkey article
— Gracie (@graciemarx) March 30, 2024
The Kim Mulkey hit piece is a 3/10 maybe even a 2/10 on the crisis comms scale.
She played y’all — hard.
Got everyone talking about LSU.
She is a media manipulator.
— Yvonne | PR Spox 🎙️ (@ydbeep) March 30, 2024
The Kim Mulkey piece provides a couple lessons for those who scream “fake news!” or otherwise try to disparage the media in these situations:
1) the story is usually gonna come out whether you engage or not
2) if you do engage, you likely come off looking better — not worse
— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) March 30, 2024
All of this started because Pat Forde sent out an intentionally vague tweet about a Kim Mulkey WaPo piece. He provided zero insight into what it was about and didn’t bother to dig into it later.
“Wagons being circled” for what ended up being stuff that we already knew.
— Nick Simon (@Nick_JSimon) March 30, 2024
I know I said before that it’s a bummer this piece didn’t drop on April Fools’ Day so that the Internet could have a field day with spinning off a bunch of fake news from it.
Now that we know the substance of it, I’m actually a little relieved that Mulkey and LSU can just focus on basketball, because after a 78-69 victory over UCLA on Saturday, they’re one Iowa win away from the Elite Eight matchup everyone wants to see.
Will the real LA please stand up?! pic.twitter.com/seoEwOorxy
— LSU Women's Basketball (@LSUwbkb) March 30, 2024
