BATON ROUGE, La. ā LSU coach Kim Mulkey lashed out at and threatened legal action against The Washington Post on Saturday, saying the paper has spent two years pursuing a āhit pieceā about her and that it gave her a deadline to answer questions this past week while the defending national champion Tigers were preparing for the women's NCAA Tournament.
āThe lengths he has gone to try to put a hit piece together,ā Mulkey said of award-winning Post reporter Kent Babb, whom she did not mention by name. āAfter 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 tournament with more than a dozen questions, demanding a response by Thursday, right before weāre scheduled to tip off. Are you kidding me?
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āThis was a ridiculous deadline that LSU and I could not possibly meet, and the reporter knew it,ā Mulkey continued. āIt was just an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament. It aināt going to work, buddy.ā
Babb 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: āAcross the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City,ā and āNot A Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.ā
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.
Mulkey said she told Babb two years ago that she wouldn't be interviewed by him because she ādidnāt appreciate the hit job he wrote on Brian Kelly,ā the current LSU and former Notre Dame football coach.
āIām fed up, and Iām not going to let The Washington Post attack this university, this awesome team of young women I have, or me without a fight,ā Mulkey added. āIāve hired the best defamation law firm in the country, and I will sue The Washington Post if they publish a false story about me.
āNot many people are in a position to hold these kinds of journalists accountable, but I am, and Iāll do it,ā Mulkey said.
Mulkey accused Babb of trying to trick her former assistant coaches into speaking with him by giving them the false impression that Mulkey had acquiesced to being interviewed.
āWhen my former coaches spoke to him and found out that I wasnāt talking with the reporter, they were just distraught, and they felt completely misled,ā Mulkey said.
Mulkey added that former players have told her that the Post ācontacted them and offered to let them be anonymous in a story if theyāll say negative things about me.ā
āThe Washington Post has called former disgruntled players to get negative quotes to include in their story," Mulkey said. āTheyāre ignoring the 40-plus years of positive stories.
āBut you see, reporters who give a megaphone to a one-sided, embellished version of things arenāt trying to tell the truth. Theyāre trying to sell newspapers and feed the click machine,ā Mukley continued. āThis is exactly why people donāt trust journalists and the media anymore. Itās these kinds of sleazy tactics and hatchet jobs that people are just tired of.ā
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness