This Week's Sports Hero & Zero: Record-Setting Iditarod Champ and Most Despicable Person in Women's Basketball

by Julian Spivey

Hero

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​In last week’s Sports Hero & Zero piece, I gave my sports zero of the week dishonor to the moose that interrupted and ultimately gave its life at the Iditarod dog sled race held annually in Alaska. The moose’s life came to an end at the hands of dog-sledder Dallas Seavey after it became entangled with his dogs and he was forced to kill it and gut it per rules. Since last week’s post, it emerged that the Iditarod punished Seavey for inadequately gutting the moose. He received a two-hour penalty.

On Tuesday, March 12, Seavey, won his record sixth Iditarod despite the interruption by the moose, the time spent forced to gut it by rule, being penalized for inadequately doing so, and one of his dogs, Faloo, being critically injured (Faloo underwent two successful surgeries and is expected to recover) in the moose incident.   

It’s wild to me that Seavey, 37, could overcome all of that adversity (my wife makes fun of athletes for overusing that term but in this situation, I think it’s appropriate) and still win the 1,000-mile event from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Seavey’s winning time was nine days, two hours, and 16 minutes.

His sixth win surpassed Rick Swenson’s record of five Iditarod victories between 1977 and 1991. Seavey previously won the event in 2012, becoming the youngest to ever do so at 25, as well as in 2014, 2016 and 2021. Winning the Iditarod is special on its own but the way Seavey did so this time certainly earned him a spot as this week’s sports hero. 

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Zero

I won’t say you never want to see fighting in sports. Some sports are built on fighting. In others, it’s become an acceptable practice – like in hockey. But you don’t want to see it happen in collegiate sports so it was unfortunate to see players on the South Carolina and LSU women’s basketball squads go at it during the SEC Championship game on Sunday, March 10. The fight began when South Carolina forward Kamila Cardoso shoved LSU player Flau’jae Johnson to the floor late in the fourth quarter. Six players would be ejected from the game following the tussle – Cardoso for instigating it and three other players on South Carolina’s squad and two on LSU’s squad for leaving the bench area. The ugliest part of the incident was when a spectator, Johnson’s brother, jumped over the scorer’s table to get involved before being escorted away by police.
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Now, it would be extremely easy to give the sports zero of the week dishonor to both Cardoso or Johnson’s brother, but it’s how LSU coach Kim Mulkey, one of the most despicable people in sports at large, handled the aftermath of the incident in her postgame press conference that has earned her the sports zero of the week.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley did in her press conference what all coaches should do under the circumstances. She apologized.

Mulkey took the opposite route.

During her press conference, Mulkey almost sounded like she was going to say something right beginning with, “It’s ugly, it’s not good, no one wants to be a part of that,” before taking a U-turn and saying: “ But I’ll tell you this, I wish [Cardoso] would’ve pushed Angel Reese [LSU’s 6-3 star forward]. If you’re 6-8, don’t push somebody that little. That was uncalled for in my opinion. Let those two girls who were jawing, let them go at it.”

No ma’am. Nobody should be “going at it” on a basketball court, especially at the collegiate level. You’re supposed to be a leader of young women, though you do have an absolute shit record of doing so, you’re not supposed to be a boxing promoter. It’s just another example of dumb stuff coming out of Mulkey’s mouth.