He never met Admiral Kirk. He may well have met Lieutenant Kirk.
(After fighting so many rearguard efforts against ridiculous over-parsings of dialogue to support inane theories--Trek V didn't forget about George Samuel Kirk, the original intent of "Turnabout Intruder" was not that women could not command starships--I wanted to see what it felt like to be on the other side of the bullshit line. It feels... dirty.)