LaVar Ball Responds To Claims That Donald Trump Helped With UCLA Players’ Release

Camille Augustin
Updated
The father-of-three, whose son LiAngelo Ball was accused of swiping sunglasses from the luxury store, didn't stifle his thoughts on the situation.

By Camille Augustin

Not too long ago, one of LaVar Ball’s sons and two UCLA basketball players (LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill) fell into the hands of China’s law enforcement when they were caught shoplifting at a Louis Vuitton store. The situation played out in the media for a couple of weeks with talks of a 10-year sentence or house arrest.

Following news of the collegiate athletes’ incident, Donald Trump took a trip to Beijing, China to discuss trade plans, North Korea, and other foreign affairs. Within those meetings, Trump managed to request President Xi Jinping’s help with releasing the three freshmen players from committing a theft crime. Shortly after, the student-athletes were freed and returned home to a suspension. The teammates were in China for a game.

While Trump questioned whether or not the players would thank him, which they did during a press conference, LaVar Ball decided that Trump wasn’t really all that instrumental. In an interview with ESPN, the father-of-three, whose son was accused of swiping sunglasses from the luxury store, didn’t stifle his thoughts on the situation.

“Who? What was he over there for?” Ball wondered. “Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.” The vocal dad added that he’s witnessed things that don’t compare to his son’s run-in with the law.

“I’m happy with how things were handled. A lot of people like to say a lot of things that they thought happened over there. 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,” he said. “My son has built up enough character that one bad decision doesn’t define him. Now if you can go back and say when he was 12 years old he was shoplifting and stealing cars and going wild, then that’s a different thing.”

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