Major Newspaper Apologizes to LSU Coach Kim Mulkey Over ‘Dirty Debutantes’ Column

BATON ROUGE, La. (103.3 The GOAT) - LSU women's basketball coach went scorched-earth over an op-ed written in the Los Angeles Times that described her team as the "villains" in their weekend match-up against UCLA and called the players "dirty debutantes."

"I know sexism when I see it and I read it. That was awful," Mulkey said in response to the original op-ed. "You can criticize coaches all you want, that's our business. But the one thing I am not gonna let you do, I am not gonna let you attack young people."

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The original text of the column included the lines "Do you prefer America's sweethearts or its dirty debutantes? Milk and cookies or Louisiana hot sauce?"

The Times has now come out and apologized for the column.

The column, which was originally posted here, now has an "Editor's Note" at the top of the page.

"The original version of this commentary did not meet Times editorial standards," the note reads. "It has been edited to remove language that was inappropriate and offensive. We apologize to the LSU basketball program and to our readers."

UCLA's coach, Cori Close, tweeted an apologize after she retweeted the article, saying she did not read the full article and missed the language that has since been deemed offensive.

"I made a huge mistake in reposting without reading it first, and I am very sorry for that," she said. "I do not condone racism, sexism or inflammatory comments aimed at individuals in our community. I apologize to Kim Mulkey and the entire LSU women's basketball program."

"I only want to grow our game and have a positive impact on the people who come together because of basketball," Close added.