LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey is entering her fifth season with the Tigers, but she’s been a fixture of the sport since 2000, her first season as the Baylor Bears head coach.
The three-time AP College Basketball Coach of the Year and four-time national champion as a coach spoke on an episode of “Get Gordon Presents” about her family, faith and true priorities in life.
Reflections on Mortality Led Kim Mulkey to Decide Between Family and Basketball
Kim Mulkey, the fierce and fiery head coach who led LSU’s women’s basketball team to a national title, is known for her unwavering intensity and unrelenting commitment to the game. But behind the championship banners, trophies, and public persona, lies a woman who, like many others, has faced the sobering reality of mortality. In recent months, Mulkey found herself at a crossroads—a deeply personal moment in which the gravity of life, family, and legacy collided. And it forced her to confront a question that many successful individuals eventually face: When does your life off the court demand more than your life on it?
For decades, basketball has been Kim Mulkey’s identity. From her time as a player at Louisiana Tech to her Hall of Fame coaching career at Baylor and LSU, she has been driven by the pursuit of excellence. Her career has included multiple national championships, Olympic gold, and the respect of the sports world. But success in sports often comes at a price, and for Mulkey, that price was precious time—time away from family, time lost to travel and endless preparation, time that she could never get back.
Mulkey has always been intensely private about her personal life. But recently, she opened up about the emotional impact of losing close family members and watching others battle illness. The deaths of loved ones, especially those who played key roles in her upbringing and her journey, brought her face-to-face with her own mortality. It wasn’t just about how much time she had left, but how she wanted to spend it.
This reflection wasn’t sparked by a single event, but a series of them that unfolded over years. Watching friends grow old, seeing former players start families of their own, and realizing that the people who once cheered her on from the sidelines were no longer there—it all added up. “You start to realize that you’ve missed a lot of birthdays, a lot of holidays,” Mulkey admitted in a recent interview. “And when those people are gone, you can’t get those moments back.”
At the height of her career, Mulkey was faced with an impossible decision: continue the demanding, all-consuming life of coaching at the highest level, or step away to reclaim some of the time she had long sacrificed. For someone as competitive and driven as Mulkey, stepping back from the game—even temporarily—felt almost like defeat. But as she sat with the weight of her reflections, the answer became clearer. Family had to come first.
In the end, Mulkey made the difficult decision to take a step back—not entirely from basketball, but from allowing it to dictate every corner of her life. She restructured her time, redefined her priorities, and made a conscious choice to be present for her family in ways she hadn’t been able to before. It wasn’t about retiring or quitting; it was about recalibrating.
This decision has resonated beyond the sports world. It’s a reminder that even the most powerful figures, the ones we place on pedestals, wrestle with the same human questions we all do. For Mulkey, her legacy isn’t just built on wins and titles. It’s also about the courage to say, “Enough,” when the cost becomes too great.
Today, she continues to coach, but with a renewed sense of balance. She’s found peace not just in victory, but in presence—being with her children and grandchildren, celebrating the simple joys of life. As she puts it, “Basketball has given me everything. But family gives me purpose.”
Mulkey’s story is one of reckoning, not retreat. And in choosing family, she’s written a powerful new chapter in her life—one that reminds us all that our time is finite, and the choices we make with it define who we truly are.