Perhaps you have caught the story of Philadelphia 76ers guard Lou Williams approached by a gunman on Christmas Eve. It has caught fire around the web, and thus far, is based off the article in the Philadelphia Daily News. Bob Cooney reports:
While stopped in his car in Manayunk on Christmas Eve, Sixers guard Lou Williams was approached by a man with a gun. The situation was deflated when the gunman recognized Williams and commended him for his work in the community (bold is mine). Williams said he treated the man to a meal at a local fast food restaurant by giving him some money.
“A guy tried to rob me but decided not to because of whatever I do in the community,” said Williams. “He’s a Lou Williams fan, so he didn’t rob me.”
Williams said he was driving in his car when the man approached, knocked on the driver’s window and had a gun drawn.
“There’s crime everywhere,” said Williams. “I was debating whether to pull off to help the guy. The gun was already out. He did all the talking, and we came up with a solution before I could really say much. I treated him to McDonald’s.”
While more details will likely come out in future interviews, a look around the web will generally focus on one of two themes: a) Williams taking the man to McDonalds; or b) Williams being recognized as a famous basketball player as the reason for not being robbed. In Internet comment sections, both themes have produced all types of jokes, mention of every item on the McDonald’s menu, and musings about how Williams just got lucky because he was a famous basketball player (i.e. what about the next guy in a car?).
However, based on the the information from Cooney’s original report, it wasn’t Lou Williams celebrity that might have saved him — it was his community service.
Lou Williams Philadelphia Coat Drive
ESPN and many other mainstream outlets left out Cooney’s sentence that the gunman “commended him for his work in the community” which supported Williams own quote to the same effect. The omission may or may not have been intentional, but the subsequent narrative was reduced to Big Mac jokes instead of a far more compelling and humanistic narrative.
Williams community service includes giving back to his original hometown, Philadelphia Coat Drives, charity games, leukemia commercials, bookbag drives, child obesity, and donating sneakers and jackets to local youth (hat tip: Barstool Sports Philly), and that is only what we publically know. Williams — who makes five million dollars a year — represents a carjacker’s dream catch. But instead of “striking gold”, the carjacker struck “humanity” – compelled by Williams’ humanity to those less fortunate than him. Some commenters have applauded Williams for taking his car-jacker to McDonald’s while others have derided him for bypassing the local police. Few of those critics have proposed a community workforce center…
Will this moment be a hopeful “wake-up call” to the gunman or will he continue on the path where he left off? No one knows that answer. But this story tells us that the carjacker has it in him to turn down his very best payday if provided just enough love and respect. That dynamic is worth exploring further.
The corrected narrative should, at minimum, induce more readers to view Williams and the carjacker with a deeper lens, and at best, make us question what might happen if Williams personal love and community service was transformed into actual economic policy and opportunity at a time where young adults still face an economic Great Depression.
Lou Williams went unharmed because he cared.
Perhaps we could all be safer if his lead were followed.
