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One of the bigger stories to come out of the NBA bubble over the past couple of weeks was the large number of Los Angeles Clippers players that were missing heading into the league’s restart.
Among those missing players were Clippers guard Lou Williams who was away from the team attending a funeral.
Unfortunately for Williams, during his time away he also visited the Magic City strip club in Atlanta… to grab some chicken wings… and got busted doing so, resulting in him having to spend 10 days in quarantine – missing the Clippers’ first two games, and costing him $150,000.
Williams claimed he was just visiting his favorite “restaurant” because the wings are so good and wasn’t partying. He only enjoyed a few dances while waiting for his wings to arrive.
Following Tuesday’s game, a 117-115 loss to the Phoenix Suns, Williams addressed his visit to Magic City.
“In hindsight, I think as far as the public safety issue goes, I probably could have made a better-quality decision,” Williams said after his first game out of quarantine. “I was a little naïve in that aspect. I went somewhere after a viewing of somebody I considered a mentor, somebody I looked up to, first Black man I seen with legal money in my life.”
Williams added, “It’s been documented how much I talk about this place, how much I eat there. I just did something that was routine for me. I frequent that place at that time of day, 5:30, 6 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, the pandemic, maybe it wasn’t the best-quality decision. I chalk it up as that, take my L and keep moving.”
Williams also tried to make the point that his visit to Magic City overshadowed the “real life issues” he was going through at the time.
“It’s extremely difficult, man,” Williams said. “I truly was grieving two weeks ago. I was really going through something. I was thrown under the bus, you know what I’m saying? … All the attention turned to Magic City because it’s a gentlemen’s club. I feel like if I was at a steakhouse or Hooters or whatever, it wouldn’t be half the story.
“I pray and I really hope these fans understand what Trez is going through while he’s away, so when he come back, people don’t have a lot to say. Pat went through the thing with his family. I went through my thing. We’re having real-life issues in the world. It’s on front of a page to see the decisions you make outside of that. It’s difficult. It’s part of the landscape. You understand that. People are going to say their things, they’re going to print their things, imaginations are going to run wild. You deal with these things and keep moving.”
[ESPN]