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There was a ton of hype surrounding Lou Williams after he made a name for himself as one of the most dominant high school basketball players Georgia has ever seen but it took a fair amount of time for him to find his footing before settling into a role as a reliable bench player with occasional flashes of brilliance.
The shooting guard spent his first seven seasons playing for the 76ers and has some fantastic stories about his stint in Philadelphia, including the time he made $15,000 by crushing a six-pack and took a guy to McDonald’s after he tried to rob him at gunpoint.
He eventually signed with the Hawks in 2012, which marked the beginning of a tour around North America that kicked off when he was traded to the Raptors and won his first Sixth Man of the Year award. That helped him net a nice contract with the Lakers, where he got the full Kobe Bryant Experience before being traded to the Rockets for a brief stint prior to another transaction that brought him back to Los Angeles as a member of the Clippers in 2017.
Williams has been playing the best basketball of his career ever since that change of scenery, as he averaged over 20 points in the two consecutive seasons where he was once again named the best bench player in the NBA (he even named his son “Syx” to make sure his legacy will live on).
Someone in the Clippers front office presumably saw some value in acquiring Williams but it appears they failed to consult with Doc Rivers before pulling the trigger on the deal, as the coach recently chatted with Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman and revealed he was not thrilled to hear he’d been added to the roster, saying:
“When we traded for Lou, I was not having Lou. I saw a guy that kept getting traded. And I appreciated his offense, but not nearly, never thought it was this good. When he finally showed up three days before training camp, I was not having him. I was like, ‘We’re not gonna work’, you know?
“I brought him up in the office and I told him my feelings. I said, ‘Lou, you’re one of these guys that wanna do whatever you wanna do, and you don’t want to buy-in. We asked everybody to come in. Everyone did except for you. I don’t know how this is gonna work.’ And he said, ‘I’ve been traded five years in a row. Why would I buy-in to you?’, and I didn’t have an answer.”
I think it’s safe to say it worked.