Los Angeles — NBA All-Star weekend is a time to not only reflect on the utter beauty of the game, but to pay homage to the most remarkable and extraordinary talents that grace the courts today.
We caught up with the Los Angeles Clippers’ exceptional shooting guard Lou Williams, the 12-year vet who seems to be playing his best ball yet while averaging 23.2 points and 5.3 assists per game this year as the game’s most lethal sixth man.
He gave us some insight on the league’s best trash talkers, his favorite NBA rappers, how despite the casual fan now taking notice of his ridiculous offensive skill set, he’s been getting buckets for over a decade after coming straight outta high school, and more.
Here’s what he had to say.
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“There’s not a culture of trash talking in the NBA, you just have certain guys that talk trash, like my man Stack Five (Stephen Jackson). He talked trash! Some guys just need that kind of energy to get themselves through the game.
The playoffs, 2012, we (the Philadelphia 76ers) were playing the Boston Celtics and we had a young team. Kevin Garnett was just trying to get under everybody’s skin. It kind of worked and they beat us in seven games. It’s not really much of a story, but KG was a legendary trash talker. I just remember him talking non-stop for seven straight games. Right now, Joel Embiid is probably the best trash talker because he enjoys it. He makes it fun.
The coolest thing about being a part of this weekend is just to mix and mingle with the fans. This is who it’s really for, for these young kids to see their favorite players up close and personal, for us to put some smiles on their faces.
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I appreciate people saying that I should have been an All-Star this year. I appreciate the recognition. This season has been fun. Every year there are snubs and somebody gets left out. This year, that narrative included me. At the end of the day, I’m a sixth man that started 14 games this year, so it was just exciting for me to be in that conversation.
I’ve been a solid pro for years and I’m having career-highs this year. But I’ve been a double-digit scorer in the NBA for a decade. We had some injuries, had some things go down, so I’ve just been doing what’s been needed of me.
My role is the exact same whether I’m starting or coming off the bench based on injuries, trades and guys going in and out of the lineup. Since the trade (of Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons for Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris), we’ve been fine. We’re pros. When guys get traded or one guy gets hurt, you have that ‘step-up’ mentality and it’s the next guy up, so you just have to move on.
This is one of those years where I had an opportunity to step up to the plate and play more minutes, and I knocked it out. A lot of teams are competing at a high level. I think we’re doing everything we can to continue to push for a playoff spot, but other teams aren’t doing us no favors. Denver’s in a good run, New Orleans is hoopin’, so we just have to continue to do our job, but I think we’re in an OK spot.
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My three favorite NBA rappers are me, Shaq and Damian Lillard. And I like Iman Shumpert too.
My favorite all-time teammate is DeMar DeRozan. He’s just a really cool dude. He’s just a level-headed, cool person with good vibes and energy to be around.
