On March 23, 2024, LSU coach Kim Mulkey said she would sue The Washington Post if a profile being prepared about her contained false statements. The threat was conditional; it is not evidence that a lawsuit was filed. The Post published the profile on March 30, and the sources cited here do not establish whether litigation followed.
What Mulkey said before LSU’s tournament game
At a press conference on March 23, ahead of LSU’s NCAA Tournament game, Mulkey criticized The Washington Post over a profile reporter Kent Babb was preparing. The Associated Press reported that Mulkey said Babb had sought an interview for two years, then sent LSU more than a dozen questions on Tuesday with a Thursday deadline, shortly before a tournament game. Babb confirmed to the AP that he was working on a profile and declined further comment; The Washington Post also declined comment.
Mulkey said she had declined an interview because she disliked an earlier Babb story about LSU football coach Brian Kelly. She also alleged that Babb had contacted former assistant coaches and players in ways she regarded as misleading or biased. Those claims describe Mulkey’s account; the AP report does not independently establish the reporter’s motives or the accuracy of her characterization of his outreach.
Her central statement was: “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.” The condition matters: she threatened a lawsuit if the forthcoming story was false. Mulkey also called the deadline “ridiculous” and said the reporter knew LSU could not meet it; that assertion about what the reporter knew was her characterization, not an independently verified finding. The AP’s March 23 report records the comments and the outlet’s response.
#1 Best Overall
How the episode unfolded
- March 23: Mulkey made the conditional lawsuit threat at a press conference before LSU’s NCAA Tournament game.
- March 24: The Guardian reported that LSU was defending its 2023 national title and that Mulkey said she did not want the controversy to distract her team. LSU beat Middle Tennessee 83–56 in the second round. The Guardian’s account also noted players’ support for their coach and her continued criticism of the press.
- March 30: The Washington Post published the profile. The AP described it as wide-ranging, with comments from family members and former players about Mulkey and her basketball program. The AP reported that Mulkey said lawyers would review the story after the season and that she would not read it. The AP follow-up reports the publication and her response.
Why the press conference drew attention
The dispute became a story before the profile appeared. Axios reported that more than 5 million people read about the article before publication, citing an estimate from media-monitoring platform Memo; that is a reported estimate, not an independently audited audience count. In Axios’s analysis, crisis-communications firm Kith president Stephanie Craig said, “Taking the podium as she did has always been a last-ditch effort to change the framing of a story.” That is Craig’s interpretation of the communications strategy, not proof of Mulkey’s private intent. Axios’s April 4 analysis gives that estimate and commentary.
A 2025 study in Communication & Sport likewise analyzes the episode as a media-framing event and interprets the press conference as an effort to disrupt or redirect the news cycle. The authors caution that discussion on X should not be treated as a substitute for public opinion, so the study does not establish what readers generally thought. The study offers an academic analysis rather than a measure of universal audience reaction.
Rank #2
Did Kim Mulkey sue The Washington Post?
The available AP reports establish that Mulkey threatened to sue if the profile was false, and that the profile was published on March 30. They do not establish whether she later filed a lawsuit or how any litigation ended. The threat should therefore not be described as a confirmed case or court ruling.
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