The article hasn’t even been published yet, but Kim Mulkey is already criticizing one rumored looming story about her.
And LSU’s polarizing women’s basketball coach is threatening legal action.
On Friday, Sports Illustrated college sports reporter Pat Forde posted on X that the Washington Post has a “big” story about Mulkey “in the works.”
One day later, Mulkey made a preemptive strike, railing against the potential story and reporter behind it — saying she will sue the outlet if they publish what she called a “hit piece.”
“I wouldn’t normally discuss media rumors about me, but I felt the need to publicly address what exactly this reporter for the Washington Post has been doing the past several years,” Mulkey said on Saturday. “And the lengths he has gone to try and put a hit piece together. This reporter has been working on a story about me for two years. After two years of trying to get me to sit with him for an interview, he contacts LSU on Tuesday, as we were getting ready for the first-round game of this [NCAA] tournament, with more than a dozen questions, demanding a response by Thursday right before we’re scheduled to tip off. Are you kidding me?
“This was a ridiculous deadline that LSU and I could not possibly meet, and the reporter knew it. It’s just an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament. It ain’t gonna work, buddy. Unfortunately, this is part of a pattern that goes back years. I told this reporter two years ago that I didn’t appreciate the hit job he wrote on [LSU football coach] Brian Kelly, and that’s why I wasn’t going to do an interview with him. After that, the reporter called two former college coaches of mine and left multiple messages that he was with me in Baton Rouge to get them to call him back — trying to trick these coaches into believing that I was working with the Washington Post on a story.”
Neither Mulkey nor Forde revealed the name of the reporter, but Washington Post sports features writer Kent Babb wrote a lengthy article about Kelly in 2022 for the outlet.
Babb later confirmed to The Associated Press that he is working on a profile of Mulkey, but declined further comment.
The Post also declined comment.
Babb has been working for The Washington Post for 14 years.
Three times, his features have been named best in the nation by The Associated Press Sports Editors. Babb also has written two books: “Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City,” and “Not A Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.”
After Mulkey’s press conference, Babb wrote “Hit piece?” in a post on X, linking that 2022 story about Kelly.
Mulkey regularly is at odds with reporters, and on Saturday railed against the journalism industry.
“When my former coaches spoke to him and found out that I wasn’t talking with the reporter, they were just distraught and they felt completely misled,” Mulkey said. “Former players have told me that the Washington Post has contacted them and offered them to be anonymous in a story if they’ll say negative things about me. The Washington Post has called former disgruntled players to get negative quotes to include in their story.
“But you see reporters who give a megaphone to a one-sided embellished version of things aren’t trying to tell the truth. They’re trying to sell newspapers and feed the click machine. This is exactly why people don’t trust journalists and the media anymore. It’s these kinds of sleazy tactics and hatchet jobs that people are just tired of. I’m fed up and I’m not gonna let the Washington Post attack this university, this awesome team of young women I have, or me, without a fight.”
Mulkey claimed that she hired legal representation regarding the yet-to-be-published article.
Mulkey is in her third season at LSU, which signed her to a 10-year, $36 million extension after she won her fourth national title as a coach last season.
She also won three with Baylor, along with two as a player at Louisiana Tech and a gold medal as a player for Team USA at the 1984 Olympic Games.
“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,” Mulkey said. “Not many people are in a position to hold these kinds of journalists accountable, but I am. And I’ll do it.”
The reigning national champions, the No. 3-seeded Tigers, will face No. 11 Middle Tennessee on Sunday.
— with AP