President Trump fired back at LaVar Ball, the father of one of the three UCLA basketball players caught shoplifting in China, whom the president said he “saved from years in jail.”
“Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, 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!” Trump tweeted Sunday.
Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, 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 J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
“Who?” LaVar Ball told ESPN this week when asked about Trump’s involvement in the situation. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested and questioned on suspicion of shoplifting while in the Chinese city of Hangzhou on Nov 7. Trump said he personally asked Chinese Preisdent Xi Jinping to intervene on their behalf, and they returned to Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.
“As long as my boy’s back here, I’m fine,” LaVar Ball told ESPN. “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. 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.”
The three players thanked Trump on Wednesday days after Trump touted his role in their release.
