NBA Player Quarantined, Loses Six-Figure Salary For Attending Strip Club While Outside The Bubble
Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams will miss the first two games of the NBA season inside the bubble at Disney World after violating the terms of an approved trip off campus.
Williams received approval from the league to attend a funeral in Atlanta last week. During the trip outside of the NBA’s quarters at Disney World, known as the bubble, Williams visited an Atlanta strip club to grab dinner.
While the funeral was approved, the dinner was not and Williams has been ordered to quarantine for 10 days even though he has not tested positive for the coronavirus. While in quarantine, Williams will miss two seeding games as well as $150,000 in salary that was attached to his playing in those games, according to CBS Sports.
The episode has caused a stir in the sports world as commentators, athletes, and fans debate how much control the NBA should have over players’ lives amid the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the more tawdry topic of whether Williams was truthful about his stated interest in the strip club Magic City: the chicken wings.
Former NBA star Tracy McGrady and NBA analyst and commentator Amin Elhassan debated over the appropriate level of control the league should have over its players’ lives during an appearance on The Jump on Tuesday.
“This is not even a story, like what are we talking about,” McGrady said. “The man had an excuse to leave the bubble to go to a family funeral and he went and got something to eat. Because it’s a strip club we making this a story?”
“If things were normal and Lou Williams went to the strip club nobody would say anything about this,” McGrady added. “If he was to go to WingStop, or if he was to go to the grocery store what is the difference?”
In response, Elhassan appeared, however jokingly, to support Williams claims that he went to the strip club just for some wings.
“Tracy, I’m so offended. I’m so offended at what you said because you just compared WingStop and grocery store wings to Magic City. Sir, how dare you. Magic City has the best chicken wings I’ve ever had,” he began.
Elhassan said that the NBA’s actions against Williams had nothing to do with the fact that Williams went to a strip club rather than a restaurant or grocery store for food.
“It’s not about what he did on his personal time off. It’s about the league having an approach that this bubble is safe and secure and that anyone who leaves the bubble is doing so for an approved activity, in this case to go and pay his respects at a funeral,” Elhassan said. “In situations like this when they have a rule and, even though you didn’t really mean to break the spirit of the rule, you broke the rule, they make an example out of you.”
On the wings claim, former NFL player Johnny Manziel also pointed out on Twitter that Magic City is known for its wings.
“Believe it or not, the chicken wings at Magic City are the best I’ve ever had,” Manziel said.
