Three-time Coach of the Year and current LSU Women’s Basketball Coach Kim Mulkey declined to comment on the “status” of WNBA’s Britney Greener on Monday. Griner is in jail in Russia after being caught with poppy oil in his trunk while playing in the Russian Premier League during the WNBA off-season in February 2022.
Mulkey admitted Griner to Baylor University and was Griner’s head coach at the university for four years until he was selected to the WNBA in 2013.
At Monday’s press conference, Mulkey was asked, “I want to know what you think of the Britney Greener situation, I don’t think I’ve heard from you about it.”
“And you won’t,” Malki replied.
“I want to know what you think of the Britney Griner situation, I don’t think I’ve heard that from you.”
LSU basketball coach Kim Mulkey: “And you won’t.” https://t.co/C9sFFVktn8
— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 26, 2022
Griner said he fell out with Mulkey in 2013, and his cultural dissatisfaction at the conservative private Baptist school caused him to refuse to attend a college game or associate with Baylor because he declared himself gay and was gay. She was drafted to the WNBA.
Head coaches Kim Mulkey and No. 42 Baylor Bears’ Britney Griner celebrates the national championship trophy after defeating Irish Challenger Notre Dame 80-61 at the 2012 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Women’s National Final at Pepsi Center in April 2012. December 3, 2012, Denver, Colorado. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
In 2013, Griner said Malka had no problem hiring him after he revealed to a coach that he was gay. Griner accused Baylor’s religious culture of encouraging students to keep their sex lives private:
“There’s hiring happening,” Griner told ESPN The Magazine and espnW. “The coaches thought people wouldn’t let their kids play for Baylor if they seemed to turn a blind eye.”
“This is more than an unwritten law. [to not discuss your sexuality] … one of those things, you know, don’t,” Griner said Friday. “‘Why are you leaving your job on the street?’ They tried to do something like
…
“I told my husband [Mulkey] when you hired me. And I said, “I’m gay. I hope it’s okay,” he said, and he said no to me,” Griner said. “I mean, my teammates know, obviously everybody knows. Everybody knows that.”
Baylor’s fate Williams (left to right), head coaches Kim Mulkey and Brittney Greener speak to the press during Women’s Big 12 Basketball Day at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, October 25, 2012. (Telegram/Tribune News Service via Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star – Getty Images)
Griner and Mulkey have had a “difficult relationship since the last days of an actor’s career” at Baylor, where Griner made a name for himself as a college player and played before 2013 when he decided to go public with his homosexuality. The draft, according to Yahoo Sports:
Griner and Mulka have had a strained relationship since the actor’s last days at school. At a pivotal moment in time, Griner publicly announced that he was gay before the 2013 WNBA draft. She told reporters she was encouraged to keep quiet about her sexuality at Baylor, a private Baptist university in Texas. Griner also discusses this in his 2014 book In My Skin. She said it wasn’t meant to be a shot at mulkey, but rather a statement about Baylor’s culture and community in general.
The school includes a policy in the student handbook that sex should be restricted to heterosexual marriage. In May, it was decided to provide support to all students regardless of their “sexual orientation or gender identity”. He pointed out that “any kind of sexual intercourse outside of marriage” should not be done.
Baylor University head coach Kim Mulkey consoles Britney Griner, 42, in the final seconds of losing to the University of Connecticut in the Women’s Basketball Division I Semifinals held at the Alamodome at the 2010 Women’s Final Four in San Antonio, Texas. Connecticut beat Baylor 70-50 to advance to the finals. (Photos by Rodolfo Gonzalez/NCAA via Getty Images)
Malki has always refused to publicly comment on the sexual orientations of his actors. Outsports, “Kim Mulkey reported in an article published in 2021 about her troubled past with LGBTQ athletes at LSU:
In the summer of 2012, for example, Mulkey spoke to Sid Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports, and asked him a simple question: “Is there a gay player on your team?”
His reply: “Don’t ask me that. I did not want. I don’t think it’s anybody’s business. Whoever you are. I don’t care if it’s known.
Although the media portrayed Mulkey in a negative light, 2005 Baylor National Champion Emily Nkosi, who also came out to be gay, explained that Mulkey’s reaction was in line with the conservative Baptist college culture’s expectations of athletes and staff:
Coach Mulka is a member of a sports division, school, city, state, and even district known for his conservative, homophobic belief system. As a leader and icon in each of these areas, Coach Mulkey has been unfairly labeled as homophobic, especially because of what happened to me and then to Britney Griner. But in my experience, he never expressed an opinion that differed from the prevailing belief system in that community.
Kim Mulkey was asked about the situation but did not comment. #Baylor | #SicEm | @KCENsports pic.twitter.com/C9wzFGN4fF
— Matt Lively (@mattblively) September 26, 2022
Griner said his battle with Malki was probably due to the two women being “two strong personalities”. “I thought we could talk about it,” Griner said. But in reality it is not… his ears are not open, probably on both sides, me or him. We are probably two strong. That’s why it’s difficult. But I really congratulate Kim. I know LSU has a great coach. That’s why I’m happy for him.”
Source: Breitbart
