Kim Mulkey, the legendary Louisiana State College girls’s basketball coach, mentioned twice Saturday she hadn’t but learn The Washington Post’s profile on her everlasting athletic career.
“Are you actually shocked by the timing of it?” she rhetorically asked a reporter forward of the Tigers’ Candy 16 look towards UCLA, which LSU gained 78-69, paving their technique to the Elite Eight and a potential second straight national title.
The extremely anticipated article by reporter Kent Babb was printed hours earlier than the sport.
“I haven’t learn it,” Mulkey mentioned of the article, including that she does not “know that I’ll learn it” and that it is going to be left as much as her attorneys whether or not she does.
Mulkey lashed out on the Put up at a information convention on March 23.
She mentioned the reporter, whom she didn’t title, had been making an attempt for 2 years to get her to sit down for an interview for the piece, after which contacted LSU on March 19 “as we have been preparing for the first-round recreation of this match with greater than a dozen questions, demanding a response by Thursday, proper earlier than we’re scheduled to tip off.”
She referred to as the deadline “ridiculous” and mentioned she “couldn’t probably meet it.”
“It was simply an try to forestall me from commenting and an try and distract us from this match. It ain’t going to work, buddy,” Mulkey continued.
She threatened to “sue The Washington Put up in the event that they publish a false story about me.”
“Not many individuals are able to carry these sort of journalists accountable, however I’m, and I’ll do it,” Mulkey mentioned through the information convention.
The article, printed per week after these feedback as LSU cruises via the ladies’s March Insanity bracket, delves into Mulkey’s historical past as each a basketball participant and coach.
It touches on private tales about her household and upbringing — together with her strained relationship along with her father and sister — particulars her legendary profession as a participant at Louisiana Tech, and lays out her historical past with a few of her former gamers, together with Brittney Griner, Kelli Griffin and Emily Niemann, who’ve questioned whether or not Mulkey supported their sexuality.
The story paints an image of a extremely expert participant who gained two nationwide championships whereas at Louisiana Tech and an Olympic gold medal for Workforce USA in 1984, and of a fancy and pushed coach who has had many highs — together with 4 nationwide titles, three whereas she led the Baylor Girl Bears.
She has additionally been mired in controversy, the article lays out, with one former teammate of Mulkey’s saying she wished Mulkey had made extra of a press release in assist of Griner whereas she was detained in a Russian prison, save for one touch upon a radio present.
Talking Saturday at a postgame convention following LSU’s win, Mulkey once more mentioned she hadn’t learn the Put up’s article and acted shocked to be taught it was printed simply hours earlier than her crew hit the court docket.
“Think about that. Will need to have thought y’all would take a look at it, proper, get some clicks or be a distraction. I have never learn it and I most likely will not learn it. I most likely could have my attorneys talk with me to see if there’s something there that we should be involved about,” Mulkey instructed reporters.
Requested for remark in regards to the Put up article, a consultant for LSU pointed NBC Information to Mulkey’s postgame convention.
LSU performs the Iowa Hawkeyes on Monday for a spot within the Last 4.
Rebecca Cohen is a breaking information reporter for NBC Information.
