Ball gets a reality check with son’s arrest
You hear the news that LaVar Ball’s middle son was arrested in China on suspicion of shoplifting and could face years in jail, and you want to say “I told you so.”
You want to say big-mouth Papa Ball deserves this. All the nonsense and bravado, the sexist rants, the belligerent behavior and the lack of respect for almost anyone other than himself has to eventually lead to someplace bad, right?
Is this that place? Has Ball finally met his match? LaVar Ball vs. China? Let’s see how that goes. There is much we still don’t know about what happened in Hangzhou, China, on the UCLA men’s basketball team’s trip to play Georgia Tech in Friday’s 2017 Pac-12 China Game.
This we do know: three UCLA players have been arrested, and ESPN has reported that one of the players is Li-
Angelo Ball, son of LaVar and younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo. The others are Cody Riley and Jalen Hill. All three are freshmen. They have been released on bail, according to ESPN citing a person with firsthand knowledge, but apparently cannot leave their hotel. UCLA coach Steve Alford has said they will not play in the game.
Authorities believe the players shoplifted from a Louis Vuitton store near the UCLA team hotel outside of Shanghai. The U.S. State Department is available to provide assistance to the three men, a State Department official told USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
No matter what these kids did or didn’t do, it will be much better for all concerned to get them back home and deal with them appropriately there.
This is a frightening scenario for the Ball family — or at least it should be. Allegedly committing a crime in your own country isn’t good, but allegedly doing it in China is really not good. One would think that might have been emphasized in a team meeting or two before the trip.
It will come as a surprise to absolutely no one that LaVar Ball also is in China with his son’s team. He has his reasons: He is opening two Big Baller Brand shops in hopes of selling his T-shirts and hoodies to millions of unsuspecting Chinese.
Imagine for a moment if someone in your family did something like the three UCLA players allegedly did in a foreign country like China. You’d almost cer- tainly want to say nothing, listen to the authorities, be they with UCLA or the State Department, and hope against hope that you can take your kid home with you. Frankly, you’d probably be scared to death.
But LaVar Ball? At first he said he couldn’t talk “due to the legal nature of the matter.”
But Ball being Ball, that wasn’t going to last long.
ESPN’s Arash Markazi caught up with Ball as he was heading out of the hotel on a sightseeing tour of Shanghai with his reality show crew in tow.
Let’s stop for a moment and consider that last sentence. Your son allegedly shoplifted — in China! — and could be facing jail time — in China! — but the reality show must go on.
My goodness. How screwed up is this man?
As Markazi asked questions with his smartphone video camera rolling, Ball couldn’t stop himself.
“I’m going to wait until I get more intel on what’s going on,” he said, adding about his son, “He’ll be fine. Everyone’s making it a big deal. It ain’t that big a deal.”
Just the words the State Department and anyone else trying to help LiAngelo Ball and his two teammates want to hear.
For those good souls trying to figure out how to save three young men from China’s so-called justice system, here’s a suggestion.
A swap: UCLA gets to bring its three freshmen home and deal with them there.
In return, China gets to keep LaVar Ball.