Kim Mulkey’s usual style is to be loud and wrong, so the fact that she didn’t even show the bare minimum of support for Brittney Griner on Monday was pretty telling.
Kim Mulkey
If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. This is true for college basketball’s Lord Palpatine, whose natural tendency is to be mean. Cory Diaz of the Lafayette Daily Advertiser asked Mulkey if she had any thoughts on Griner’s arrest and sentence in Russia. Mulkey hasn’t said anything about this yet, even though she coached Griner in college.
Mulkey’s silence speaks volumes. Even though she had had months to think about it, she still tripped over it and hit her head. Griner and Mulkey worked well together as coaches and players for four years. Griner was a big reason why Baylor won 135 of its 150 games between 2009 and 2013, made it to two Final Fours, and went 40-0 on the way to the 2011 national title. She cared about Griner as much as she did when she was against masks during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Given her past, Mulkey probably agrees with the many Americans who have supported or laughed at Griner’s maximum punishment in the name of “law and order” while ignoring the fact that similar cases in Russia have been dealt with more gently.
Donald Trump, who used to be president and is now a social media nutjob, went out of his way to say mean things about a possible prisoner trade that would free Griner. Yet, when he was president, he backed reducing drug sentences in response to the opioid crisis that was destroying rural white communities.
Griner also didn’t help Mulkey when she told ESPNW’s Kate Fagan about how hard it was for her to hide her sexuality at Baylor. Mulkey used her energy to try to get Fagan fired instead.
Ironically, when Griner was playing in Ekaterinburg, Russia, during the last WNBA offseason, she defended Mulkey. She told ESPNW’s Mechelle Voepel, “It’s not a personal attack on her; she didn’t write the rules at Baylor. She just did what she thought was right.
“I wasn’t against her; I was against the system. I still love Baylor, though, “Griner said. I also learned from it. I think she learned something from it, and I hope she takes whatever it was and uses it with the new players she’s coaching. “
Mulkey won’t say why she doesn’t like Griner, so nobody knows why. We do know that Mulkey’s first thoughts aren’t always the best ones and that she often has to change her mind. If you find yourself agreeing with Mulkey, that means you didn’t pass the Homelander test.
If you always agree with the bad guy, you might want to think about what you think is right and wrong. In college basketball, the Mulkey test is used instead.
Mulkey’s sense of right and wrong automatically led her to defend a Baylor administration that covered up sexual assaults. Her first reaction to the scandal at Baylor was to tell people at home to punch anyone in the mouth who told their daughter not to go to Baylor.
She said later, “This is a great school. I would send my daughter here, and I would pay for the daughter of anyone else to go here. Every day I work here. I know about it. I’m sick of hearing that, too. This is a wonderful place. The problems we have at Baylor are the same as those at any other school in the United States. Period. Onward. Find something else to write. “
Since Mulkey said she didn’t want to say anything about Griner’s situation, former players Queen Egbo and Chloe Jackson have criticized her. Given that most former college athletes have a lot of respect for their coaches, it’s telling that Mulkey’s former players have harsh things to say about her. Compared to how Dawn Staley gets along with former players, this is a very bad thing.
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