Over the weekend, LSU suffered an unfortunate loss in the Elite Eight to UCLA, ending their journey in the NCAA tournament. The loss would be LSU’s second straight loss in the Elite Eight, but frustration setting in after such a tough loss is expected.
However, Kim Mulkey, the LSU coach, received some minor backlash for how she handled a question at the post-game conference. Obviously, emotional following the loss, Mulkey berated a reporter who attempted to ask her about losing in the Elite Eight again.
While Mulkey is well within her right to feel how she feels, though being condescending to the reporter was unnecessary. Still, there are some people who feel like Mulkey just showed her true colors in that post-game conference.
Stephen A. Smith Calls Out Kim Mulkey
ESPN’s First Take would touch on the topic with both Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith speaking their feelings on the matter. Smith was direct when talking about Mulkey, implying that she was just rude.
“We just need to finally say this about her: she's very rude. She's very very rude. She's rude, she's condescending and unnecessarily so to too many people.”
– Stephen A. Smith on Kim Mulkey
(🎥 @FirstTake / h/t @awfulannouncing )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 31, 2025
“I’m not gonna take away from the fact that Kim Mulkey is a great coach and an established coach. We just need to finally say this about her: She’s very rude. She’s very very rude. She’s rude, she’s condescending and unnecessarily so to too many people”
“But it’s always with the right one. See, she don’t go up to the wrong ones like that. It’s almost like she knows, Shannon, who do to that to, and who not to do that to.”
“Because certain people you do that to, they’re going to clap back at you. She’s a phenomenal coach, one of the best ever, but she’s just a very very rude person.”
Mulkey definitely seemed to take the reporter out of context and unnecessarily went at him for doing his job. Smith has a tendency to also be rude and condescending himself, so perhaps there’s no better judge for this than the ESPN analyst.
Smith Still In Feud With LeBron James
While Smith had his comments about Mulkey, he is still embroiled in a feud with LeBron James. Smith has gone a very different route than expected with the feud, even referencing Kobe Bryant’s memorial with a lie that James wasn’t present.
What motivated Smith to go off the deep end with this feud is unknown because the issue seemed to be handled when it went down at the Lakers game. Smith hasn’t referenced James’ parenting skills anymore, but he’s just spewing whatever comes to mind now.
It will be interesting to see how quickly this all fizzles out, as the feud feels like it is nearing an endpoint. Will we see Smith apologize again for his comment? Time will tell.