Anyone who dresses the way Kim Mulkey does loves attention. And since the ultra-competitive and always controversial head coach has never shied away from the camera, she might as well show up in Waco next month for a photo-op on Brittney Griner’s big night — even if the two can’t stand each other.
Baylor has announced that the greatest player in the history of the women’s basketball team, and maybe the best athlete the school has produced, is finally getting her number retired. Griner left the program in 2013 and finished her degree in 2019, but on February 18, her number is finally going up.
“I’m honored to return home to Baylor and celebrate where so much of my journey started,” Griner wrote in a statement released by Baylor. “I’m grateful to Coach Nicki (Collen) and the entire Baylor community and looking forward to the opportunity to be back on campus, spend time with the team and have my family beside me to share in this incredible moment. Sic ‘Em Bears.”
“We’re excited to have Brittney back on campus and honor her with the retirement of her jersey,” Baylor head coach Nicki Collen wrote in her statement. “I have been saying this since I arrived at Baylor that she deserves to have her jersey retired and I wanted to make sure that happened when the timing was right.
“She is one of the best basketball players in Baylor’s history and we’re thrilled that the time has come to celebrate Brittney and all of her accomplishments.”
Some of the ice in Waco has melted as Griner’s relationship with the school has been frigid for years, and so much of that is because of Mulkey.
“It was a recruiting thing. The coaches thought that if it seemed like they condoned it, people wouldn’t let their kids come play for Baylor,” Griner told ESPN back in the day about what Mulkey told players about not being open publicly about their sexuality. And when Griner was imprisoned in Russia, Mulkey was useless. “If it was LeBron, he’d be home, right?” former Phoenix Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard said at the time. “It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a Black person. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and so that’s what hurts a little more.”
Some would have expected a quote like that to come from Mulkey, but it didn’t. All she did was offer the bare minimum. “God is good. Prayers are powerful,” she said after learning that Griner was going to be freed. “Brittney is on her way home where she belongs. Our prayers remain with her and her family as they recover and heal together.” Funny enough, due to Mulkey’s LSU team winning the national championship last season, it meant that the team’s White House visit put Mulkey and the man (President Biden) who brought Griner home in the same room.
When taking a peek at LSU’s schedule, you will coincidentally notice that the Lady Tigers don’t have a game on the night Griner will be honored. In fact, LSU will already be in, or will be on their way to, Texas, as they play Texas A&M on the 19th. According to Google Maps, the drive between the two campuses is less than 90 minutes. And it’s not like Mulkey can’t hire a driver or catch a private jet if she wanted. She signed a 10-year, $36 million extension after winning it all last year.
In three weeks, a woman who was a three-time All-American and a National and Big 12 Player of the Year, who won the Most Outstanding Player award at the Final Four for leading Baylor to its second national title during a 40-0 season, and who later went on to become the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft and became an Olympian, is finally getting properly honored at her alma mater. Griner also deserves a statue. So much of what Baylor women’s basketball has become is because of Griner and Mulkey. And despite how they might feel about each other, it’s hard to separate the two when you think about what that program has achieved. So for one night in February, Mulkey needs to get over herself and do the right thing for once and show up for the best player she’s ever coached.
