With a tone of fire, bluster and outrage, LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey took aim at The Washington Post during an unprompted interruption in her press conference on Saturday ahead of the reigning national champs’ second-round NCAA tournament matchup with No. 11 MTSU.
Mulkey, who has been the coach at LSU since 2021 and won three national titles with Baylor before then, is no stranger to controversy.
On Friday afternoon, Sports Illustrated writer Pat Forde hinted that a substantial story about Mulkey was coming from one of his competitors. This is the first that the general public had heard of such a report coming from The Washington Post.
Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women's hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc.
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) March 22, 2024
That tweet from Forde came after LSU had beaten Rice, 70-60, in the Tigers’ NCAA tournament opener. So, the first time reporters had seen Mulkey since was Saturday afternoon, during her scheduled press conference.
Before a reporter got the chance to pose a question to Mulkey about this rumored report, she addressed it while reading from statement in front of her.
Kim Mulkey makes an opening statement to address the Washington Post rumors. Here’s part one of her statement. @LSUwbkb @KimMulkey #LSU pic.twitter.com/Xiv8v5zB7m
— Chessa Bouche (@chessabouche) March 23, 2024
Part two of @KimMulkey statement.
She ends it with saying “I’ve hired the best defamation law firm in the country & I’ll sue the Washington Post if they publish a false story about me.”@LSUwbkb #LSU #NCAAT pic.twitter.com/50QB8con5w
— Chessa Bouche (@chessabouche) March 23, 2024
Mulkey painted the rumored story as a “hit piece” and said the unnamed reporter had been working on it for two years. She added that it was an attempt by the reporter “to distract us from this tournament.”
The 61-year-old coach with more than 700 wins and an affinity for outlandish outfits then threatened the newspaper with a lawsuit:
“I’m fed up, and I’m not going to let The Washington Post attack this university, this awesome team of young women I have, or me without a fight. I’ve hired the best defamation law firm in the country, and I will sue The Washington Post if they publish a false story about me. Not many people are in a position to hold these kinds of journalists accountable, but I am, and I’ll do it.”
Mulkey did not address the story any further and wasn’t directly asked any more about it by the reporters in the room, according to the transcript provided by the NCAA.
It’s hard to say what Mulkey accomplished with her statement, but it certainly increased the anticipation and desire to read the alleged story, which has yet to be published.