Trump says he should have left three UCLA basketballers in Chinese jail, after parent belittles his efforts
President Donald Trump says he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail.
Trump’s tweet on Sunday came after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimised Trump’s involvement in winning the players’ release.
“Who?” LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump’s involvement in the matter. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
Trump has said he raised the players’ detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the leaders’ recent meeting in Beijing.
The players returned to the US and last week and they have been indefinitely suspended from the team.
In his tweet, Trump said that LaVar Ball, father of player LiAngelo Ball, had been “unaccepting of what I did for his son”, adding “I should have left them in jail”.
The younger Ball, along with fellow freshmen Jalen Hill and Cody Riley, are not with the rest of the No 23 Bruins, who are in Kansas City to play in the Hall of Fame Classic on Monday and Tuesday. The trio is not allowed to suit up, be on the bench for home games or travel with the team.
The players were arrested and questioned about stealing from high-end stores next to the team’s hotel in Hangzhou, where the Bruins stayed before leaving for Shanghai to play Georgia Tech.
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said last week that the players stole from three stores.
“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 LA. 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,” he said.
“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.”
