Hailey Van Lith says negative LSU comments fueled by racism - ESPN

ALBANY, N.Y. — LSU guard Hailey Van Lith defended her team Sunday following a Los Angeles Times column that described players as «dirty debutantes,» calling those who perceive them negatively as «being racist toward my teammates.»

Van Lith said the team saw the commentary before its Sweet 16 matchup against UCLA on Saturday. She wishes they had not read it because «that can crush your soul a little bit that someone would ever say that about us that doesn't know us.»

«We do have a lot of Black women on this team, and unfortunately, that bias does exist still today, and a lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates,» Van Lith, who is white, said. «I'm in a unique situation where I see with myself, I'll talk trash and I'll get a different reaction than if Angel [Reese] talks trash. I have a duty to my teammates to have their back. Some of the words that were used in that article were very sad and upsetting.

»Calling us the dirty debutantes, that has nothing to do with sports. That's not motivating. But in my opinion, I know for a fact that people see us differently because we do have a lot of Black women on our team who have an attitude and like to talk trash and people feel a way about it. At the end of the day, I'm rocking with them because they don't let that change who they are. They stay true to themselves, and so I'll have their back."

During her postgame news conference following LSU's 78-69 victory over UCLA, Tigers coach Kim Mulkey also ripped the column that portrayed her team's matchup against the Bruins as a «reckoning» between good versus evil, calling it «sexist,» «awful» and «wrong.»

Van Lith, who grew up in Wenatchee, Washington, spent the first three years of her