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Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe sound off on Kim Mulkey: ‘She’s very, very rude’
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe are ESPN’s prominent duo featured on “First Take” these days, and they have some strong thoughts about the latest antics produced by LSU head coach Kim Mulkey
On Sunday, the Tigers saw their season come to an end, losing in the Elite Eight for a second straight season since winning the national title in 2023. However, Mulkey took umbrage at a reporter asking about the back-to-back losses in the Elite Eight, asking if it was a “terrible” thing before asking the reporter how many Final Four trips they had been a part of.
Following that exchange, both Sharpe and Smith took their chances calling out Mulkey for her behavior. First, it was Sharpe who revealed his thoughts alongside Chad Johnson on the “Nightcap” podcast.
“Has she not ever lost a game before?” Sharpe said to Johnson as Sharpe’s co-host attempted to defend Mulkey in part. “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 tried to explain that the wording of the question may have been triggering in nature for Mulkey, but Sharpe felt otherwise, describing the moment as the latest in a longstanding pattern of nastiness “for a very long time” for the head coach.
“I don’t think so. I don’t believe so,” Sharpe said about the questioning. “Kim Mulkey has been nasty for a very long time. And she’s gotten away with this type of behavior because she is a National Championship-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 Championship-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.”
During Monday’s broadcast of “First Take,” Smith echoed similar sentiments by describing Mulkey as “very, very rude.” Smith acknowledged the accomplishments of Mulkey but also said she has learned which individuals she can take advantage of in these moments.
“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,” said Smith. “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 ones. She doesn’t go up to the wrong ones like that. It’s almost like she knows, Shannon, who to do that to and not to do it to.”
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
