LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey gave a fiery opening statement to her Saturday press conference in which she threatened to sue the Washington Post if it publishes a “false story” about her.
The rumor of a potential story about Mulkey started when Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated made a post on X (formerly Twitter) stating that a story could be in the in the works.
“Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc,” Forde said.
Less than 24 hours later, Mulkey gave a prepared statement to begin her already scheduled Saturday press conference. The statement was over three minutes long and threatened legal action if the Washington Post published a “false story.”
“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.
She also said that the reporter has been working on the story for two years and contacted LSU on Tuesday with “more than a dozen questions” with a deadline on Thursday to answer those questions.
Mulkey called the deadline “ridiculous” and “an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament.”
However, Mulkey also stated that the reporter has been trying to set up an interview with her for two years.
She claimed that she declined to speak with the reporter two years ago because of what she called a “hit job” that he wrote about LSU football head coach Brian Kelly. 
The story Mulkey labeled a “hit job” was titled “In Baton Rouge, there’s a $100 million football coach and everyone else,” and was more about Louisiana’s economics and Kelly’s pay than Kelly himself.
Mulkey said that the Washington Post has reached out to former players, offering them anonymity if they “say negative things” about her.
“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 read the click machine,” Mulkey said. “This is exactly why people don’t trust journalists and the media anymore.
“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,” she said.

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