Lou Williams became the man of the hour in the Orlando bubble but not for good reason. The perennial Sixth Man of the Year candidate left the bubble to attend a family emergency but ended up attending a ‘Gentleman’s Club’ – allegedly to pick up chicken wings – thus being forced to miss the first two seeding games in quarantine.
Some veterans like Kendrick Perkins said Lou was irresponsible and let his teammates down, and the chicken wing incident was a common joke during the broadcasts. Williams, however, had stood by his decision. That changed when he was finally able to go back on the court:
“In hindsight, I think as far as the public safety issue goes, I probably could’ve made a better quality decision. I was a little naïve in that aspect,” Lou admitted after his team’s 117-115 loss vs. the Suns.
The combo guard went on to clarify that he was truly grieving and going through some issues before attending the club and that he felt like it shouldn’t have been that much of a story:
“I truly was grieving two weeks ago. I was going through something and then I was thrown under the bus. Everything the attention turned to Magic City because it’s a gentleman’s club. I feel like if I was at a steakhouse or Hooters or whatever, it probably wouldn’t have been half the story. But it is what it is. It was difficult to go through that,” Williams continued.
Even so, Williams took the blame for what he did and acknowledged that attending a club, or any place during the pandemic was poor judgment:
“I just did something that was routine for me. I frequent that place at that time, 5:30-6 o’clock in the afternoon. At the time, I thought I was making a responsible decision. After looking back on it with everything going on in the world with the pandemic, maybe it wasn’t the best quality decision. So I chalk it up to that, take my ‘L’, and keep moving,” Sweet Lou concluded.
Lou Williams was back on the court following his two-game absence and logged 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists on 20 minutes off the bench for the Clippers. They’ll need him at his best in the playoffs if they look to upset the Lakers and make the Finals.
