LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 11, 2020

Lou Williams

Press Conference

Q. Lou, good seeing you, man. I was just wondering, I know you said a couple weeks ago that you were 50/50 on coming back, and I was wondering, what changed your mind in coming here and how will you use your platform; what message do you want to get across that won't distract from the protests, which is something that you had worried about?

LOU WILLIAMS: We spoke as a group. We spoke as a team and we decided that our decision, it was going to be everybody or nobody. And so once we sat down, we had a conversations, we decided to take a vote and we just had more things in common and we just decided that we were going to come as a group.

So I'm part of the group. I have a lot of thoughts and ideas of the things that I felt strongly about personally but I represent a group. I represent an organization; so ultimately that led to my decision.

Q. Lou, I'm just wondering, I saw something about your music and Pat's talking about tee shirts. Have you thought about how you'll make sure you can keep yourself mentally?

LOU WILLIAMS: Yeah, I'm going to take it one day at a time. You know, just trying to figure out how I'm going to spend the course of my time over the course of three months, three and a half months, whatever the time we'll be here; I'll drive myself crazy.

As far as my studio setup goes, I'm pushing the day a lot. I had a project that was due out July 4th that we were going to put out. Obviously the timing wasn't right. We didn't feel right about putting it out. I didn't think it was right to celebrate music at that time. I'm just going to continue to record, and we'll put it out whenever we put it out.

Q. You talked about earlier about some of the things you want to see as far as making sure your voice was heard on the platform that you've been given. What are some of the things that you want to see go on while you guys are playing basketball? What are some of the issues that you want to make sure that stand out that America knows about?

LOU WILLIAMS: Just progression. Progression. Honestly we have a lot of different races and backgrounds, and the NBA is one of the more diverse leagues as far as guys from overseas, white players, black players, brown players.

I would like to see progression, and I would like the conversations to continue to move forward and we make positive steps in trying to create an environment where it's equality for all races.

Q. So Doc was saying that you as a team have lots of discussions about social issues and some of these important matters going on but that you kind of have to compartmentalize it. How hard is that to do, and what's your process for doing that?

LOU WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's going to be a challenge. I think we're up for it. You know, obviously we're here in Orlando. This is day two for us outside of quarantine, so at this point we have to focus on basketball.

We have to focus on getting ourselves in shape, understanding the environment that we are in, getting used to the environment and trying to compete at a high level. It's going to be a difficult balance and I think we have the guys that are up for the task.

These last few days, I've been focused on just getting acclimated with Orlando and getting back with all my teammates and being focused on the Clippers organization, and once I realized that everything is okay, I can do this and then I start focus on other issues that I want to involve in.

Q. You were one of the first people to say that you wanted to see #BlackLivesMatter on the court. You wanted to see jerseys, kind of have statements and they did both of those things in the NBA. How happy were you to see your voice get heard in that way?

LOU WILLIAMS: Yeah, that's progression. I'm happy to know that, you know, I work for a company that stands alongside of the minorities that's in this country and want to make a bold statement like that.

Obviously they have a lot of sponsors and everything as far as sponsorship goes, and some people may not feel that way. But I thought it was important for the NBA to listen to the players and listen to our voices and put the things in motion that we felt strongly about and stand next to us with those issues, so I was really happy about that.

Q. I think a lot of people from the outside are curious what the experience is like. Could you walk us through what the last few days have been like from the travel to quarantine and now that you're back together what's the mindset of the team?

LOU WILLIAMS: The process, it's been unique. I will say it's been unique. We're getting tested every day. You know, you have to wear your mask everywhere beside in the gym. It's just been a unique experience. It's like walking around if you're on vacation with your family in a resort, and it's just basketball players everywhere. That's what it feels like. That's what it look like, and then you get to play basketball at the same time.

It's going to be an adjustment. It's going to be fun. Everybody is kind of characterizing it as a really big AU tournament, so we're looking forward to it.