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LaVar Ball Denies Trump Helped Free Son LiAngelo From China Shoplifting Charges
Deadlne Hollywood ^ | November 18, 2017 | Bruce Haring

Posted on 11/19/2017 10:09:46 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

LaVar Ball, patriarch of the famed basketball family, has denied that President Donald Trump helped his son, UCLA freshman basketballer LiAngelo Ball, get out of potential shoplifting charges in China.

Speaking to ESPN, LaVar Ball said “everyone” wanted to make it seem like Trump helped the family, and noted that people try to “make a big deal out of nothing.”

Ball’s basketball family has a reality show, Ball in the Family, that airs on Facebook, and his brash style is regularly parodied by Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live. The family includes Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball; UCLA frosh LiAngelo; and high school basketball sensation LaMelo Ball, who is already committed to UCLA.

UCLA basketball team members LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hall were caught shoplifting during UCLA’s trip to China to play a game against Georgia Tech. They were confined to the team hotel while authorities investigated the incident and pondered formal charges. All three players returned to the States this week and are indefinitely suspended by the program.

At a press conference following their return, they thanked Trump for his part in freeing them after the President asked them for kudos via his Twitter account.

But LaVar Ball isn’t buying Trump’s intervention with China President Xi Jinping.

“Who?” Ball said to ESPN. “What was (Trump) over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

Trump boasted via Twitter that the players were facing 10 years in prison before he spoke with Xi Jinping. LaVar Ball previously downplayed the charges, saying it “ain’t that big of a deal.”

“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. 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.

“Everybody gets stuck on the negativity of some things and they get stuck on them too long. That’s not me. I handle what’s going on and then we go from there.”

ESPN reported that there was surveillance footage of Ball, Hill and Riley shoplifting from three stores inside a retail center near the team hotel in Hangzhou, China. Sources previously told ESPN that the situation was likely to be resolved in several weeks, but Trump was visiting China and claimed to have brought the matter up with Xi Jinping. Days later, the players were freed.


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Sports; Travel
KEYWORDS: blacks; china; lavarball; shoplifting; trump
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Never heard of any of these people.
1 posted on 11/19/2017 10:09:46 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I’m from L.A. I’ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses

Have you ever seen anything worse than having your kid throw his basketball life away over a pair of glasses?

2 posted on 11/19/2017 10:12:08 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Can we all say he is delusional to reality and his see no evil relating to being a parent is the reason it happened.


3 posted on 11/19/2017 10:12:33 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

And now we know why the kid is the way he is.


4 posted on 11/19/2017 10:12:54 AM PST by Regulator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

>>LaVar Ball, patriarch of the famed basketball family,<<

Sons are:

GimmeDa
BeDa
IOnlyGotOne
Pin
Gonna

Maybe some of you know others in the family I haven’t heard about?


5 posted on 11/19/2017 10:14:06 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Every Californian who supported "sanctuary state" has blood and ashes on his/her hands)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Again the world renowned gratitude of Black people is on display. They are so grateful for the welfare that they depend upon for their daily existence and the free medical care and let’s not forget that education that they take full advantage of, that helps them advance themselves far beyond anything else they could hope to achieve anywhere else on the planet.

So nice to see this gratitude. /s


6 posted on 11/19/2017 10:14:13 AM PST by Hodar (A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.- Burroughs)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

LaVar just opened retail shops in Hong Kong and Shanghai during his son LiAngelo’s arrest and detention in Hongzhou.

Denying Trump had anything to do with their release is to deny China’s president Xi Jinping had nothing to do with it, which he certainly.

Slapping the president of China across the face after his Government agreed to allow you to open stores in his country is NOT SMART.

Will be interesting to watch this unfold in the days and weeks ahead.


7 posted on 11/19/2017 10:15:26 AM PST by Eddie01
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Trump tweeted his response: “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!”


8 posted on 11/19/2017 10:16:00 AM PST by EveningStar (I am a Non-Cultist Trump Supporter.)
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To: EveningStar

I agree, Trump should have left all 3 of them there. We have no use or need for them here.


9 posted on 11/19/2017 10:19:41 AM PST by euram (4)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Thugs beget thugs.


10 posted on 11/19/2017 10:20:15 AM PST by Lexington Green (Sun Tzu Trumps Saul Alinsky)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Human garbage.


11 posted on 11/19/2017 10:20:21 AM PST by MarvinStinson
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Old man Ball just doesn’t know how to shut up.


12 posted on 11/19/2017 10:22:57 AM PST by Old Yeller (Auto-correct has become my worst enema.)
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To: freedumb2003

Onthah
Havah

and the black sheep of the family:

POlicemanz


13 posted on 11/19/2017 10:23:06 AM PST by left that other site (For America to have CONFIDENCE in our future, we must have PRIDE in our HISTORY... DJT)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Never heard of any of these people.”

Me neither.

Reality show people. Trump was a reality show celebrity. He’s helping the out here. Professional courtesy?

No bad publicity.


14 posted on 11/19/2017 10:23:07 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Eddie01

My guess. Retail shops in Hong Kong and Shanghai might have some problems in the future. Licensing, supply, rent, regulations.

Of course, then it will be Trump’s fault, not LaVar’s incredibly stupid and entitled behavior.


15 posted on 11/19/2017 10:24:06 AM PST by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Clearly this lady is why her son thinks its ok to steal. Frankly, I think the mother should do the time for the son.


16 posted on 11/19/2017 10:24:14 AM PST by poinq
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Must run in the family. LaVar has another son who is stealing from the Lakers. 😂
17 posted on 11/19/2017 10:24:26 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Enough of the mindless rants of the obtuse.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They are the Kardashians of basketball..heck even the Kardashians have enough class to not teach their kids to STEAL..no wonder LaVar’s kids are the way they are..probably learned at a young age, hey you can put a ball into a hoop therefore you can do whatever you want


18 posted on 11/19/2017 10:25:24 AM PST by Sarah Barracuda
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To: EveningStar

President Trump SHOULD have left them in jail in China..but if he had, the media(Which NEVER covered the story of these three thugs shoplifting, didnt fit the narrative) would have called Trump a racist saying if they were three white boys he would have gotten them released


19 posted on 11/19/2017 10:26:24 AM PST by Sarah Barracuda
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ve got a great idea for a reality show. Lets let their whole family go to any Asian country and try to spend a whole year without going to jail.


20 posted on 11/19/2017 10:26:47 AM PST by poinq
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