Kim Mulkey's Washington Post profile isn't the hit piece she thought it was

Kim Mulkey got upset about this?

The Washington Post's Kent Babb published a profile on Mulkey Saturday morning, mere hours before Mulkey's Tigers tip off in the Sweet 16 against UCLA in the women's NCAA Tournament.

The reaction to the piece has been largely universal: Tell us something we didn't already know.

The WaPo article doesn't necessarily paint Mulkey in a favorable light, but it also isn't the hit piece she made it out to be when she went on a tirade about it during a news conference last weekend.

Not all the accounts in the article are flattering to Mulkey, including her icy detente with former Baylor star center Brittney Griner and instances where players perceived her as being homophobic.

However, Babb notes former LSU guard Alexis Morris, who played for Mulkey at both Baylor and LSU and is openly gay, told ESPN, "Coach Mulkey is not homophobic."

Babb also includes comments Mulkey made on the "Tiger Rag" radio show about Griner's Russian imprisonment.

"I pray for Brittney. I want her home safely. I think there's lots of people speaking out on her behalf, and those of us who don't necessarily speak publicly about it certainly are praying for her," said Mulkey.

It's an entirely fair article but might be considered a "letdown" after Mulkey's overblown reaction suggested Babb had unearthed a Watergate-level scandal. That doesn't appear to be the aim of Babb's piece, which instead was to examine how a women's college basketball firebrand's singular focus on winning has impacted her and those in her orbit. 

It's led to fractured relationships, even with former championship-winning Baylor players, including Griner and Emily Niemann.

Niemann is openly gay and transferred from Baylor after winning a national title in 2005. As Babb notes, she previously wrote that she "did not leave Baylor because coach Mulkey is homophobic" and spoke with Babb about her former head coach.

She said that during a return trip to Baylor to celebrate the program's 2005 national title, "she thanked her former coach for the impact she made on her life and said she was sorry for the way things ended."

"Niemann said Mulkey said nothing and walked away," wrote Babb.

But it's an earlier quote from Niemann that perhaps best gets at the crux of Babb's Mulkey profile.

When discussing what it's like to play for the four-time NCAA championship-winning coach, Niemann told Babb, "It's emotionally draining. On the other hand, it gets results."