The 2020 NBA season was a wild time. The COVID-19 outbreak forced the league before to shut down until they figured out logistics for “The Bubble.” Bubble rules dictated strict restrictions that prohibited players from leaving the premises or doing much other than practicing and playing. One player managed to slip through the cracks and earned an infamous nickname in the process.
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Lou Williams left the Bubble in 2020 to attend a funeral. However, the three-time Sixth Man of the Year winner bumped into popular rapper Jack Harlow at Magic City strip club. When Harlow’s Instagram post of the pair’s exploits went viral, Williams landed in hot water with the NBA, who forced him to quarantine for 10 days. He missed several key games.
Lou explained the saga during a recent edition of The Water Boyz program. The retired star said he was not partying at the time, but had only gone into the club to get some wings when he happened to run into Harlow.
“Jack Harlow was Jack Harlow,” said Williams, who made a point that the rapper’s popularity had surged, which is why the photo went viral. He claimed the entire story got misconstrued because the “meal” took place at a strip club.
Kendrick Perkins famously called out Williams at the time for breaking the rules of the Bubble. Lou wasn’t about to let Perk run his mouth and fired back by telling the former Celtic to shut his mouth.
“The only dirt you can throw on me is me going to get some hot wings?” Lou said. That response helped Lou’s legend grow even further.
.@RealSkipBayless: You know who would’ve been in the game mid-3rd quarter? Lou Wings, I mean Lou Will!@ShannonSharpe: ohhhhh, Ole Lemon Pepper Lou?!
Skip: Yeahhh! Lemon Pepper Lou! pic.twitter.com/NGnawxnvxR
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) July 31, 2020
Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe discussed Lou’s hilarious outing on a 2020 episode of the Undisputed show. It was on that program that Sharpe dubbed Williams “Lemon Pepper Lou,” due to his “wings” response to Perk. It seemed like just a funny moment in Undisputed’s long history. Instead, the nickname stuck.
Williams played it smart after that. Once he realized he had a new moniker, he called his lawyer and had it trademarked. “I said hey, ‘buy Lemon Pepper Lou, Lemon Lou, every variant of it, go buy em all,'” he revealed.
The nickname wasn’t all that stuck. When Williams retired in 2023 after 17 years, he had set an NBA record for scoring 13,396 points from the bench. So whether you remember him for his amazing bench contributions or for his “Lemon Pepper” status, Williams’ legacy has been cemented forever.
