Angel Reese has owned her moment. From being named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four after LSU won their first national title in program history, to the reactions from her “dealings” with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark being the best example of “Two Americas” we’ve seen in quite some time, to her public claims that her team would rather see the Obamas than visit the White House after Dr. Jill Biden disrespectfully said that both the Hawkeyes and Tigers should come for a visit.
It’s been quite a week. However, the best potential storyline of them all had been ignored. The thought of Kim Mulkey having to potentially meet President Biden — the man that decided to bring Brittney Griner home after Mulkey practically did nothing the entire time the best player she’s ever coached was imprisoned in Russia — was staring at us right in the face.
And on Thursday, it was set in stone. LSU is going to the White House.
“Congrats to @LSUwbkb who demonstrated excellence on and off the court. They showed us what it looks like to win with an unrelenting belief in themselves. And they did it in one of the most-watched women’s sports games in US history. You have an incredible school, @LSUpresident,” the President tweeted, when he officially invited the Tigers and UConn’s men’s team to the White House earlier in the week.
If you hadn’t heard, Angel Reese is going, too. However, we should all be focused on Mulkey’s attendance, as it always felt like she didn’t care if Biden would do what was necessary to bring home her former star player.
“God is good. Prayers are powerful,” Mulkey told ESPN in December when we learned 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.”
Those 29 words are all she could muster after only previously speaking on Griner’s situation once when she replied, “and you won’t,” when asked why she had been publicly silent on the matter.
Back in 2019, Mulkey looked pathetic — again — as she publicly begged/mentioned that she would welcome a White House invitation from Trump after she won her last national championship at Baylor — despite that at the time Trump had shown us how he felt about women, given that he hadn’t invited a single women’s championship team to the White House.
Well, it worked. Trump invited Baylor to D.C. despite it feeling like Mulkey was the only one that was happy about the “fast-food feast” he broke the bank for.
“I watched that last game and that was a tough, rough game,” Trump said about Baylor’s 82-81 win over Notre Dame.
Yeah, right.
Four years later, Mulkey is headed back to the White House to visit yet another president she probably didn’t vote for — Obama and Biden, not Trump. Both Kim Mulkey and Joe Biden are two people who have a history of saying whatever is on their minds. And that alone is the reason why the Angel Reese angle isn’t the important one here. We should all be hoping that White House mics can pick up the audio between Biden and Mulkey when they first meet for a photo-op. Because while that picture may say a thousand words, the ones they speak to each other could be priceless.