Kim Mulkey on Washington Post story: 'I hadn't read that trash ... that's why I hired lawyers'
As the LSU Tigers continue to win in March, the Washington Post released a profile on women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. It’s a profile that garnered a lot of attention when Mulkey criticized it about a week before it was released.
In the end, the profile came out ahead of LSU’s highly anticipated game against UCLA, which the Tigers won. However, as Mulkey made clear at a press conference ahead of LSU’s next game against Iowa, she hasn’t read the Washington Post piece and she has no intention of it. Instead, she says she’ll let her lawyers read it.
“I hadn’t read that trash,” Kim Mulkey said. “I’m not gonna read it. That’s why I hired lawyers. The lawyers will review it and when this season is over, they’ll give me a call and say, ‘This is our next step.’ [I’m not] reading that stuff.”
Previously, Mulkey also made it clear that she wasn’t happy with the timing of the piece coming out during the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
“Imagine that. Must have thought y’all would look at it, right?” Mulkey said following LSU’s win over UCLA. “Get some clicks or it’d be a distraction.”
At that time, Mulkey also emphasized that she had no intention of reading the article in the Washington Post. That’s a position that she, apparently, hasn’t changed her point of view on.
The Washington Post article itself gives a look at who Kim Mulkey is, from her childhood to her current role as the LSU head coach. Much of it regards her relationship with her father. It also gives background on how her personality developed over the years.
Kim Mulkey defends her team, rips LA Times story
Another story that Kim Mulkey was clearly frustrated with was one that appeared in the LA Times. In this one, the article painted LSU as “dirty debutantes” while UCLA was depicted as being “Milk and cookies.”
It was an article that Mulkey spoke about, defending her players.
“How many of you in here are mothers? How many of you in here are grandmothers? Damn, I’m the only one. I hope this kind of answers your question. These young ladies — I saw an article. I didn’t see it, someone sent it to me. It was a commentary from the LA Times. You can criticize coaches all you want. That’s our business. You can come at us and say you’re the worst coach in America. I hate you. I hate everything about you. We expect that. It comes with the territory. But the one thing I’m not gonna let you do, I’m not gonna let you attack young people. There were some things in this commentary that you should be offended by as women. It was so sexist and they don’t even know it,” Mulkey said.
“It was good vs. evil in that game today. Evil? He called us dirty debutantes. Take your phone out right now and google dirty debutantes and tell me what it says. Dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me? I’m not gonna let you talk about 18-21 year old kids in that tone. It was even sexist for this reporter to say UCLA was milk and cookies. You women sit there and keep your mouth shut if you want. I’m in the last third of my career, but I’m not gonna let sexism continue. If you don’t think that’s sexism then you’re in denial. How dare people attack kids like that.”