Clippers get Williams back from quarantine
Guard admits stop for food at strip club was not the best decision he’s made
Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams emerged from a 10-day quarantine imposed because of his decision to pick up food at an Atlanta strip club, saying he “probably could have made a better-quality decision.”
The reigning Sixth Man of the Year had been excused to leave the NBA’S Orlando, Fla., bubble — where players, team officials and media members are strictly sequestered as the league completes its season under restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic — because of the death of a beloved mentor. He stopped at the Magic City club, which he had called one of his favourite places to get food, to pick up wings. But during a pandemic, it was the exact wrong thing to do.
“In hindsight, I think as far as the public safety issue goes, I probably could have made a better-quality decision,” Williams said after scoring seven points, with six assists and six rebounds, in a minutes-restricted appearance against the Phoenix Suns. “I was a little naive in that aspect.”
Williams, whose quarantine sidelined him for the Clippers’ first two games of the restarted schedule, had been given permission to leave the bubble after the death of Paul Williams, the father of a friend.
“It’s been documented how much I talk about this place, how much I eat there,” he said of Magic City. “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.”
If players have daily negative coronavirus tests while they are away from the NBA campus for approved absences, they can face as few as four days in quarantine. If they leave the campus and do not meet the NBA’S requirements or if they do not have their team’s approval for the absence, they go into 10 days of quarantine.
Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell also left the Clippers at roughly the same time for family issues. Harrell, whose grandmother died, has yet to return. Five days after he left the campus, Beverley rejoined the team Sunday.
“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 steak house 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 comes 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.”
The Washington Post
In hindsight, I think as far as the public safety issue goes, I probably could have made a better-quality decision.