Doc Rivers has occasionally been described as a father figure in his coaching style, and now yet another enlightening podcast over-share by one of his former players, Lou Williams, details exactly what kind of father that is. Basically, he sounds akin to the type of dad that catches his kid with a beer and makes him drink the whole thing to see how it feels and make it a teachable moment.
That might be a bit of a leap, but according to a bonkers story Lou Williams told recently on his podcast The Underground Lounge, Rivers did make Williams play through being drunk one game against the Knicks in 2019 — although if he intended to teach Williams a lesson, it might have been “Lemon Pepper Lou” who got the last laugh.
Lou Williams shared the story with his co-host Spank Horton and the episode's guests. As he explained, the game took place when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers and the team was in New York to play the Knicks.
“One time we had a noon game in New York. My whole s— in New York, I go to a little lounge, little hookah lounge, have me a couple of drinks. I can go and get back to the room,” Williams explained.
“This particular night, it’s like 10:30, I’m about to walk out the door. I don’t know what happened. A wave of women walked in, like a 40 piece just everywhere. I got a little carried away,” the story continued.
Getting a little carried away consisted of a night of drinking and partying, until the lights were turned on the next morning and Williams realized it was time to get to the game.
“I’m like, damn. So now my f—— professionalism kicks in at this point. I’m like, I need some coconut water,” Williams admitted.
He then proceeded to elaborately detail his various steps to realizing just how “drunk as hell” he was until finally coming to terms with his dilemma.
“So I had to make a business decision. I’m like either I’mma look drunk out here or I’m going go tell somebody the truth and I’m going go sit the f— down and I’ll deal with my suspension later on, right?” Williams reconciled.
He continued, “So I walk up to Doc Rivers, I say, ‘Doc I’mma tell you the truth.' Me and Doc had this kind of relationship. I said, ‘Doc, I’mma tell you the truth I’m drunk as f—. I’m f—— up. I’m f—— up. I went too far. I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this'.”
For those who thought Rivers would give Williams a stern talking to and a spot at the end of the bench, you don't know Doc. Because as Williams recalls, Rivers instead told him, “you’re playing the whole second quarter, because I need you to sweat that s— out. Because I’m going to need you in the fourth quarter'.”
At which point, Williams dramatically concludes his tale with the tidbit, “I had 25 in the fourth quarter.” A quick fact check corrects Williams' stat line recollection a bit — he had 15 points in the 4th (not 25). But who doesn't exaggerate their awesomeness a tad when they're drunk?
In conclusion, that about posterizes all expectations of a moral lesson for this story. Lou Williams, a professional basketball player, showed up to work drunk one day, and rather than be reprimanded by his boss, was told he had to sweat it out because the good-humored Doc Rivers needed him to play well by the fourth quarter — which he did, heroically scoring 15 points down the stretch for the Clippers and leading them to victory. In these twisted times we're currently living in, Williams' story may just represent the modern American dream. Or not — but it at least made for a good story to fill a podcast episode.
