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LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey tried to get ahead of a Washington Post “hit piece” during a stern press conference Saturday, vowing to sue the newspaper if it publishes a false story about her.
Mulkey, 61, claimed during her opening remarks that an unnamed Washington Post journalist was working on the story for two years and had presented a deadline last week for her to respond to questions.
“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,” Mulkey told reporters. “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.”
Washington Post reporter Kent Babb, a three-time winner of The Associated Press Sports Editors’ award for best national feature, confirmed to the AP he’s working on a profile on Mulkey. He and his publication both otherwise declined comment.
Mulkey, a four-time NCAA Tournament champion as head coach of Baylor and LSU, claimed that former assistant coaches who spoke to the reporter about her felt “misled” afterward, not realizing Mulkey had refused to talk to him. Mulkey also alleged the journalist told former players they could speak anonymously if they would “say negative things” about her.
The reporter allegedly presented more than a dozen questions to LSU on Tuesday and gave Mulkey until Thursday, before her Tigers’ NCAA Tournament matchup with Rice, to answer.
“This was a ridiculous deadline that LSU and I could not possibly meet, and the reporter knew it,” Mulkey said. “It was just an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament. It ain’t going to work, buddy.”
During her press conference, Mulkey said she told the reporter she would not speak with him because she “didn’t appreciate the hit job” he published about LSU football coach Brian Kelly in 2022.
Babb seemed to respond to that claim Saturday night, sharing a link to his Kelly profile on the social media website X and writing, “Hit piece?” That story is headlined, “In Baton Rouge, there’s a $100 million football coach and everyone else.”
Mulkey won three national championships during tenure with Baylor from 2000-21. She joined LSU in 2021 and led the Tigers to a national championship last season, defeating Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the final.
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