LaVar Ball played down President Donald Trump's role in getting his son, UCLA freshman LiAngelo Ball, and two teammates released from China after they were arrested for allegedly shoplifting sunglasses.
"Who?" LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about the president's actions in the situation. "What was he over there for?
"Don't tell me nothing," Ball said. "Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out."
LiAngelo Ball, along with his basketball teammates Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, arrived in the United States on Tuesday after being detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting.
The freshmen thanked Trump at a news conference Wednesday, hours after the president questioned whether they would do so on Twitter.
The next day, Trump posted these tweets:
UCLA suspended the players indefinitely for their actions.
Trump had returned from his Asia trip late Tuesday — and he raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visited Beijing last week.
LaVar Ball, also the father of Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Lonzo Ball, tried to lessen his son's alleged offense.
It occurred Nov. 7 at a Louis Vuitton store next to the team's hotel in Hangzhou, where the Bruins had been staying on a goodwill visit.
"As long as my boy's back here, I'm fine," 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," he added. "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," Ball said.
"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.
"Everybody gets stuck on the negativity of some things and they get stuck on them too long," Ball continued. "That's not me.
"I handle what's going on and then we go from there."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.