The NBA is reportedly investigating the activities of Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams during his excused absence from the league’s Disney World quarantine bubble.
Williams left the bubble this week, one of a number of players to leave Disney World for a variety of reasons.
“I think we all knew that we could start the league (during the coronavirus pandemic). The key is can we finish,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.
“I think that will be the big thing. I think what the league has learned that teams have already known, it’s more than basketball that comes up.
“Guys have life going on. Whether it be a family problem, a kid problem, a wife problem, anything, there are issues that come in these guys’ life.
“We give guys days off all the time because of it. No one really notices it.”
With the reason for Williams’ absence never disclosed, a photo of the player at a gentleman’s club – uploaded to Instagram by rapper Jack Harlow – immediately raised questions.
Harlow later claimed it was “an old pic” and he was “just reminiscing cuz I miss him”.
ESPN reported Williams was subsequently interviewed by the NBA about his movements.
“(Williams) told them he did go to the Magic City gentleman’s club for a short time on Thursday night,” reporter Ramona Shelburne tweeted.
“Lou Williams tweeted a photo Friday of a man named, Paul G. Williams, with the caption ‘Long Live Pops’.
“Sources said Williams told NBA investigators that he attended a viewing for Williams which ended around 6pm on Thursday, then went to Magic City to pick up dinner.”
As speculation mounted in the wake of Shelburne’s tweets, Harlow tweeted ‘#ClipperNation’.
Williams was reportedly tested for coronavirus every day that he was away from the Disney World campus, with a four-day quarantine on the cards for excused absences.
But the NBA is currently determining whether his activities require extending that to 10 days.
Williams, who played in a Clippers practice match in the bubble before his absence, stands to miss his team’s first two games of the NBA restart and lose US$150,000 in wages.
– with agencies
