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LaVar Ball is having none of President Donald Trump's comments as he called out all three of the UCLA players including his son, LiAngelo Ball, after they were arrested for shoplifting during a tour of China for not thanking him for intervening through President Xi Jinping to streamline a resolution.
“Who?” Ball asked ESPN's Arash Markazi. “What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
Trump tweeted his usual morning rant of the day, this time involving the UCLA players only a day after their return to the United States and hours before they were scheduled to release statements through a no-questions-asked press conference.
“Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!,” said Trump in a Nov. 15 tweet.
LiAngelo, along with teammates Jalen Hill and Cody Riley, was caught stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store — consequently being held under custody after an investigation was held to determine the chain of events.
During the UCLA press conference, all three players thanked Trump after the latter made headlines by taking offense from the freshmen's seeming lack of thankfulness.
The sunglasses were priced at 4,900 yuan, equivalent to $750. According to Chinese law, anyone who has stolen goods worth between 4,000 and 7,000 yuan faces between one and two years in jail — nowhere close to the 10 years Trump claimed in his misguided tweet. Sentences are often mitigated if the suspects confess, show remorse and return the items stolen to the rightful owner.
A day later, Trump added: “To the three UCLA basketball players I say: You're welcome, go out and give a big Thank You to President Xi Jinping of China who made your release possible and, HAVE A GREAT LIFE! Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!”
How they'll go about thanking President Xi it's yet to be known, but it wouldn't go beyond the school's capabilities, given the public pressure he's put the three freshmen under to pump his illusions of grandeur over Twitter.
