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LSU’s Kim Mulkey is one of the most successful coaches in women’s college basketball. She’s also one of the most reviled.
The reason for that is simple: her behavior. Kim Mulkey has repeatedly done and said things that have been inappropriate, wrong or just downright nasty.
It is that nasty behavior that, once again, has drawn the ire of Shannon Sharpe.
On Sunday, after her March Madness loss to UCLA, Kim Mulkey mocked a young media member, Jayden Smith of KLSU Sports, the student-run radio station at Mulkey’s school.
Shannon Sharpe did not like it. Again.
“Listen, Unc, you got to be careful with the question and the way you word it, and the delivery and what you asking, especially after a game like that and being eliminated,” Sharpe’s Nightcap co-host Chad Johnson said to him, trying to defend Kim Mulkey. “Now, you know what they tell players after the game? ‘Take your time, and cool down. Come to your senses before you answer any questions.’ She just lost the game, so you have to understand why she was feeling the way she felt and why she answered the question the way she did.”
“Has she not lost a game before?” Sharpe replied. “I mean, Ocho, he didn’t even get a chance to finish the question. He’s asking, ‘Coach, this is the second time you’ve been eliminated.’ And for you to snap back and say, ‘Well, how many Final Fours have you been to?’ Really?”
Johnson then told Sharpe that he “needs to understand” where Kim Mulkey is coming from with her response. He also thought the question, which Jayden Smith never got to finish, was worded poorly. Shannon Sharpe wasn’t buying it.
“Kim Mulkey has been nasty for a very long time,” Sharpe replied. “And she’s gotten away with this type of behavior because she is a national champion-winning head coach. She has a history of doing this, the same thing with Bobby Knight. Bobby Knight had a history of bad behavior, but because he was a national champion-winning head coach, you excused said behavior. Remember, people excuse behavior if you win, if they like you.
“Kim Mulkey has been nasty for an extremely long period of time. If this is unacceptable for an athlete to say, ‘Well, how many times have you caught a pass in the NFL?’ ‘How many times have you scored a basket in the NBA?’ ‘How many times have you struck somebody out?’ That would be unacceptable. This is unacceptable from Kim Mulkey.”
Shannon Sharpe wasn’t done there. He continued to upbraid Kim Mulkey for her behavior, saying, “She’s gotten away with treating people nasty. But, for me, I just expect more from a coach. That’s all … When you’ve been in this situation for an extended period of time, and you expect your players to behave in a certain manner after the game, I think the coach should set the precedent, should set the example, should lead by example.”
As he said 12 months ago after another Kim Mulkey outburst, “we’ve got to start doing a better job of holding Kim Mulkey accountable and responsible for some of her comments.”