ESPN star Stephen A. Smith called on LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey on Monday after her interaction with a student reporter following an Elite Eight loss to UCLA.
The reporter started his question by noting that it was the second straight year LSU had been eliminated in the Elite Eight, and Mulkey butted in, asking whether that was good or “terrible.” The reporter responded, “terrible.” Mulkey followed up by asking, “How many Final Fours you play in?”
Mulkey’s exchange went viral, and it led to Smith’s reaction on “First Take.”
“I’m not going to take away from the fact that Kim Mulkey is a great coach and an established coach,” Smith said. “We just need to finally say this about her – she’s very rude. She’s very, very rude. She’s rude, she’s condescending and unnecessarily so to too many people.
“And it’s always with the right one. She don’t go up to the wrong one. It’s almost like she knows, Shannon (Sharpe), who to do that to and who not to do that to. There’s certain people you do that to, they’re gonna clap back. But she is a phenomenal coach, one of the best ever, but she’s just a very, very rude person.”
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Mulkey has some history with reporters in general.
Before the tournament began, Mulkey called out a reporter for eating during her press conference after the Tigers lost in the SEC Tournament to Texas.
She eviscerated a Washington Post reporter last year over a story about how she allegedly treated gay players while she was the head coach at Baylor. She called the reporter “sleazy.”
Mulkey also called out the Los Angeles Times for a column that described the Tigers as “villains” and “dirty debutantes,” describing the framing as sexist. The paper later edited the column.
Mulkey is one of the most successful women’s basketball coaches in the NCAA. She is 754-124 all time with four championships and five Final Four appearances.
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