LSU’s always controversial Kim Mulkey offers a highly personal quote (#crickets) — GetReligion
Yes, the game was played on Palm Sunday — according to the Gregorian liturgical calendar used in Western Christian traditions. It’s the opening drama of Holy Week that leads to Easter, the most important feast day in the Christian faith.
Yes, Palm Sunday is a day of celebration, yet one tinged with sadness because worshippers know that there’s lots and lots human frailty and dark betrayal ahead — before the triumph of Easter.
What was Mulkey saying? I assumed that she was simply saying that Easter was just ahead. Maybe she was saying that it would be hard for Tiger fans in predominantly Catholic Louisiana to dance in the streets and celebrate during Holy Week.
I don’t know what she meant and, thus, I was curious to know if anyone would ask. Mulkey — even when working in Jerusalem on the Brazos (that’s Waco, Texas) — was always very private about her religious beliefs. Clarifying that remark, in a strange way, would be news.
But there was no follow-up question on ESPN. In the main story about Mulkey’s triumph — “‘Very emotional’ Mulkey leads LSU to elusive national title” — readers were given this:
Mulkey is the first women’s college basketball coach to lead two different teams to national championships, and this one by far is the most unexpected, as a No. 3 seed questioned for large swaths of the season for not playing a tough enough nonconference schedule. With one minute left in the game, Mulkey turned to her bench, put her hand to her mouth and tried to hold back her tears. The crowd chanted, “L-S-U!”
“I couldn’t hold it,” Mulkey said. “I got very emotional. That’s really not like me until the buzzer goes off, but I knew we were going to hold on and win this game. I don’t know if it’s the mere fact that we’re doing this in my second year back home. I don’t know if it was the fact that I am home. I don’t know if it was looking across there at my daughter and my grandchildren. I don’t know if it was looking across at LSU. I don’t know what it was, but I lost it.
“So that should tell you what I think about it. Very, very emotional and tears of joy.”
That’s valid and very human. But the other quote was much more complex and emotional.
Using a search engine, I went looking to see if anyone in the mainstream press would dare to quote those loaded words. The answer appears to be “no.”
However, LSU fans knew that this was a bold image, to say the least, and responded on the “Tiger Rant” page with some celebratory, but not so reverent, memes. One even went to far as to predict the “liberal sports media” reaction to Mulkey’s words as:
