LSU’s Kim Mulkey does not intend to read the now-published Washington Post profile on her career

The much anticipated article on LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey was published Saturday by The Washington Post. Yet rather than the hit piece Mulkey expected, the feature by Kent Babb was a profile detailing the events and people that influenced an extremely successful coach who’s won four national championships.

For example, legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt demonstrated to her that it was possible to excel at basketball while also raising a family, incorporating her children into her coaching life.

Mulkey believed Summitt, always her North Star, and took [daughter] Makenzie on a recruiting trip when she was two weeks old. She breastfed Kramer, the couple’s infant son, before and after practices and games.

However, Mulkey insists that she won’t read the feature, regardless of whether or not it includes anything she might perceive as objectionable.

“Are you really surprised by the timing of it?” Mulkey told ESPN’s Holly Rowe before the Tigers’ Sweet 16 matchup with UCLA on Saturday. “I can tell you I haven’t read it, I don’t know that I will read it. I’ll leave that up to my attorneys.”

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 drew attention to the Washington Post article before it was published by saying she would sue the newspaper if it ran a false story about her. The coach anticipated the piece would be unflattering, saying that Babb had spoken with disgruntled former players who might have bad things to say about her.

Emily Niemann, who played for Mulkey at Baylor from 2003-05, recounts wanting to transfer because she wasn’t comfortable as a gay woman on campus and felt the coach was too demanding. Niemann left Baylor after her sophomore season, but returned for a celebration of the Bears’ 2005 national championship team. She thanked Mulkey for being a positive influence and expressed regret for how her time at Baylor ended.

Kim Mulkey wasn’t surprised the article published shortly before Saturday’s game vs. UCLA. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

However, the coach was unresponsive.

Niemann found Mulkey and approached her. Niemann says she thanked her former coach for the impact she had made on her life and said she was sorry for the way things ended.

Niemann said Mulkey said nothing and walked away.

With the article now available, the reaction on social media has been largely positive. While some information in the piece might not be considered favorable, the overall piece is viewed as fair and hardly an attack. However, more people will surely read it in light of Mulkey’s objections than if she hadn’t commented on the article at all.

Following LSU’s 78-69 win over UCLA, Mulkey pretended she didn’t know the Post piece was published when asked if she’d read it.

“When did it come out?” she said before turning sarcastic when told the article went live shortly before Saturday’s game.

“Imagine that,” she added. “Must have thought y’all would look at it, get some clicks or be a distraction.”

Mulkey redirected her wrath to another newspaper piece during her postgame press conference, singling out a Los Angeles Times column that referred to LSU as “villains.”

Kim Mulkey just directly referenced and criticized an LA Times article that called LSU villians, calling the commentary sexist and unfair.

“I’m not going to let you attack young people… it was so sexist… evil… Called us dirty debutantes? How dare you?” pic.twitter.com/mPylnPnFFV

— Gavin Carlson (@GavinCarlsonDB) March 30, 2024

“I’m not going to let you attack young people, and there were some things in this commentary, guys, that you should be offended by as women,” Mulkey said in response to a Friday article by Ben Bolch.

“It was so sexist, and they don’t even know it. It was good versus evil in that game today. Evil? Called us dirty debutantes? How dare you?”

LSU will play Iowa on Monday in the Elite Eight in a rematch of last year’s national championship.