Kim Mulkey reacts to LA Times correction, removing 'dirty debutantes' line from column
According to the LA Times, the bad guys prevailed on Saturday as LSU took down UCLA to advance to the Elite 8, setting up a 2023 national title rematch with Iowa for a trip back to the Final Four.
Prior to the game, The Times published an article pitting the Bruins and Tigers as a good vs. evil matchup, summed up with this question from the author: “Do you prefer the team that wants to grow women’s basketball or the one seemingly hellbent on dividing it?” The article even went as far as to call LSU players “dirty debutantes.”
It was that line in the article which really bothered Tiger head coach Kim Mulkey. She brought up the story and that phrase in particular in the postgame press conference following LSU’s Sweet 16 win.
“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,” said Mulkey.
Following that comment and an impassioned defense of her players against much of the commentary in that article, the LA Times actually went back and removed the “dirty debutantes” line from the piece.
So, Sunday morning, when Mulkey and LSU took the podium in between games to preview the Elite 8 matchup vs. Iowa, one reporter noted that The Times made a change and removed the “dirty debutante” term, asking Mulkey her thoughts on that decision. She responded:
“You all are going to have to forgive me, I’m old generation, I just don’t spend time reading stuff. Maybe an hour and a half ago, I had someone say the LA Times updated, re-wrote, did something, and they did it at 10 something last night. And I said ‘okay.’ That was the extent of it.”
Mulkey went on to say that she isn’t necessarily looking for an apology, but she just wanted to point out what she perceived as unfair comments towards her players.
“I’m not sure what the rewrite was, I’m not sure if it was an apology, I’m not sure of any of that. But personally, no one has reached out to me — nor do I require that. I don’t need all that. I just like to recognize when I feel something was done inappropriately to young people that I get to coach.”
Now, Kim Mulkey and LSU can turn their sole focus to Iowa and slowing down Caitlin Clark in order to make a return trip to the Final Four.