LaVar Ball was adamant about not thanking Donald Trump. (Gage Skidmore)
President Donald Trump continues his penchant for entering into celebrity feuds with famed basketball dad LaVar Ball. The Commander-In-Chief got his Twitter fingers ready to diss Ball Wednesday morning. The virtual smackdown came Nov. 22 after Ball proclaimed he didn’t need to thank the president for intervening to bring his son, LiAngelo Ball, and his UCLA teammates home from China.
It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence – IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017
…LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017
As expected, Twitter had a field day with the comparison to the boxing promoter.
Donald trump calling lavar ball the "poor mans don king" might be the greatest thing I've ever read pic.twitter.com/fmFvwZacNR
— Chill team six ❄️☃️ (@lil_swingin_D) November 22, 2017
Lavar Ball when he wakes up and sees Donald Trump called him a poor mans Don King without hair pic.twitter.com/nRQAgpBgWn
— Josh (@JoshieF97) November 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/officialsupremo/status/933362151191752704
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Others had a more serious take on the tweets.
Dont let trump tweets about Lavar Ball and Don King distract yall from the fact that:
1)trump endorsed a pedophile yesterday for the US Senate
2)trump endorsed a pedophile yesterday for the US Senate
3)trump endorsed a pedophile yesterday for the US Senate— ABlackWomanWhoDontGiveAF*ck (@battletested5) November 22, 2017
Get a life, man, and stop being racist. People should do the right thing because it is the right thing to do – not for adulation. https://t.co/38Z7bYHZn0
— Khaled Diab (@DiabolicalIdea) November 22, 2017
So this isn't going to be taken as a racist comment at all, is it? The irony which few will get is that Don King actually went out of his way to support Trump, and Trump is dissing him by association. If I were Don King, I'd be ticked. https://t.co/JXR0Cq1Gek
— Duane Patterson (@Radioblogger) November 22, 2017
LiAngelo Ball was arrested in Hangzhou, China with two other UCLA freshman players Tuesday, Nov. 7 for shoplifting from a Louis Vuitton store, Sports Illustrated reported. The team was gearing up to play Georgia Tech in the season opener that Friday.
While discussing LiAngelo’s return home on “CNN Tonight,” LaVar Ball said his son returned the merchandise and maintained he didn’t owe Trump a thank you for speaking to Chinese president Xi Jinping about the release.
“I’m not saying nothin’ to the president,” Ball said Monday, Nov. 20. “I’m not saying thank you to anybody for nothing. I’ve had some things done, I talked to some people that did some other things too. … It’s not big names like you’re thinking of.”
This is the latest celebrity feud the president has engaged in. Aside from taking aim at the NFL for the better half of the fall season, Trump also engaged in a back-and-forth with Snoop Dogg.
While the spat with Snoop cooled, it remains to be seen when Ball will strike back at Trump’s Don King comparison.
