FILE – In this Feb. 11, 2020, file photo, Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams brings the ball up during the team’s NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers in Philadelphia. Clippers coach Doc Rivers says Williams is expected to join the team for the NBA’s restart in Florida. Williams has described himself as “50-50” on whether he would finish out the pandemic-interrupted season because he didn’t want to distract from the ongoing push for social justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in police custody. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
NBA player Lou Williams is being investigated by the league for allegedly visiting a strip club after he left the Disney World coronavirus bubble to attend a funeral, US media reported.
The 33-year-old Clippers player was granted permission to leave the Orlando resort — where NBA athletes are living and working during the US COVID-19 outbreak — after the death of a friend’s father, according to ESPN.
Williams was pictured in Atlanta’s Magic City strip club on Thursday night, holding a drink and wearing an NBA face mask, US media said.
The photo, posted on US rapper Jack Harlow’s Instagram account, was later deleted.
Williams has told the NBA that he attended a dinner there following the funeral, ESPN said.
On his official Twitter account, he tweeted Saturday: “Ask any of my teammates what’s my favorite restaurant in Atlanta is. Ain’t nobody partying. Chill out lol.”
He also retweeted praise of Magic City, and individuals defending him.
The league is trying to determine where else Williams may have been, in order to set the length of his quarantine.
Having now returned, he will observe four days isolation — with daily COVID-19 tests — and a possible quarantine extension depending on the advice of medical experts.
On Saturday, coach Doc Rivers, appearing visibly annoyed ahead of the Washington game, said: “I can’t say much about his trip. I wasn’t with him.”
“Obviously those (photos) came out, and that’s something we obviously don’t like to see and don’t like,” he said.
Two other players on the team, pivot Montrezl Harrell and point guard Patrick Beverley, have left the campus this week because of family emergencies, and have not returned.
The departures are likely to be detrimental ahead of Thursday’s Lakers game, which will see the restart of the season.