Trump fires back at LaVar Ball over China incident
A day after LaVar Ball, the outspoken father of basketball players LiAngelo and Lonzo Ball, played down President Donald Trump’s involvement in getting LiAngelo safely out of China without any criminal charges, the president fired back on Twitter.
“Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail,” the president wrote Sunday, “LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!”
Later in the day, Trump doubled down on his claim that LaVar Ball was ungrateful for his son’s release.
“Shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be (5-10 years in jail), but not to father LaVar,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Should have gotten his son out during my next trip to China instead. China told them why they were released. Very ungrateful!”
Trump’s tweets were a response to an interview with ESPN in which LaVar Ball cast doubt on how much Trump had been involved in freeing LiAngelo, a freshman at UCLA, and two of his teammates after they were arrested during a team trip to China earlier this month.
“Who?” LaVar Ball said when asked about Trump’s involvement. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
LiAngelo Ball and his teammates, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, were arrested on suspicion of shoplifting while in China with their teammates. Trump, who was in the middle of a tour of Asia, raised the case with President Xi Jinping of China, and the three players were allowed to return to the United States.
The president’s chief of staff, John Kelly, described to The New York Times how the episode had played out.
“Our president said to Xi, ‘Do you know anything about these knuckleheads that got caught allegedly stealing?’ ” Kelly said. Unaware of the episode, the Chinese president dispatched an aide to get more information. “The president was saying, ‘It’s not too serious. We’d love to see this taken care of in an expeditious way,’ ” Kelly added.
As for the players, Kelly added, “I bet they learned a lesson in their lives.”
The president made it clear on Twitter that he expected the players to thank him for his involvement, claiming they faced 10 years in jail, though many legal experts weighed in to say it was unlikely the charges would have been that serious. Regardless, once the players were home, UCLA held a news conference to discuss the incident, and all three players thanked Trump. It was also announced that all three had been suspended indefinitely from UCLA’s basketball team.
Apparently satisfied with their level of thanks, Trump took to Twitter to acknowledge their gratitude, and added some more advice.
“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,” the president wrote, with the admonition: “Be careful, there are many pitfalls on the long and winding road of life!”
From his claims that he could have beaten Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one back in college, to his proclamation that his son Lonzo, a rookie with the Los Angeles Lakers, was better than Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors even before Lonzo had played an NBA game, there has rarely been a situation in which LaVar Ball does not have an opinion.
During the ESPN interview, Ball seemed to suggest that he did not believe his son’s criminal trouble in China was a serious situation.
“A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there,” he said. “Like I told him, ‘They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.’ I’m from L.A. I’ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses.”
“Who? What was he [President Donald Trump] over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
Lavar Ball, on Donald Trump’s involvement in the release of his son, two other players after shoplifting in China
“LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!”
Donald Trump, on LaVar Ball’s comments