President Donald Trump and LaVar Ball engaged in a bitter public feud after LaVar refused to thank the president for his son’s safe return to the U.S. (Images courtesy of The Independent/USA Today)
It turns out President Donald Trump had little to do with the releases of four University of Los Angeles basketball players who were arrested on theft charges in China late last year.
According to a recent report by ESPN, the president had zero involvement in the releases of the players from a Chinese jail when they were arrested for shoplifting. Athlete LiAngelo Ball, son of famed sports dad LaVar Ball, was among those jailed in November.
“Among the new details that have emerged: what the players stole from the other two stores besides the sunglasses from Louis Vuitton and that the players were required to leave the police station multiple times to return the items they stole to all three stores,” the report read.
“[The] charges were dropped, the bail refunded and the players’ passports returned two days before White House chief of staff John Kelly called the players to inform them that President Donald Trump was working on their release,” it continued. The report revealed it was UCLA that appeased Chinese authorities to secure the release of the players. However, the NCAA team and the officials thought it best to still thank Trump and Kelly as it wasn’t clear at the time if their efforts with China would pay off.
The bombshell revelation comes just months after Trump took credit for the players’ release and demanded that Lavar thank him for intervening and negotiating the safe return of his son and his teammates to the U.S. The “Big Baller Brand” founder flatly refused, sparking an intense public rivalry between the two outspoken figures.
This latest report proves Lavar didn’t need to thank Trump after all. Of course, LaVar did not miss the opportunity to call out Trump after the report.
https://twitter.com/Lavarbigballer/status/970036465068515329
