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发帖数: 4796 | 1 LaVar Ball won't thank Trump — but he did send him shoes
The father of UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball still isn't crediting
President Donald Trump with helping to free his son after his arrest in
China — but LaVar Ball did send the president a cheeky gift from his sports
apparel line.
Ever the promoter, LaVar Ball told "Today" on Tuesday that while he
refuses to thank Trump, he mailed a few pairs of Big Baller Brand sneakers
to the White House.
"I sent him three pair — red, white, and blue — to show him we
patriotic," Ball said.
LiAngelo Ball, 18, was one of three UCLA team members detained in China on
suspicion of shoplifting last month, a day before Trump arrived overseas to
meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. On the morning of the players'
release, Trump told reporters he "had a great conversation" with his
Chinese counterpart about letting them return home.
While all three basketball players thanked Trump at a news conference once
they were back on U.S. soil, LaVar Ball has played down Trump's role in
bringing them home, prompting furious tweets from the president.
"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," Trump
tweeted on Nov. 22. "Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man's version of
Don King, but without the hair."
Related: President Trump rips into LaVar Ball yet again, blasting him as a &
#39;fool'
Speaking with "Today" after announcing that he is withdrawing
LiAngelo from UCLA, the elder Ball insisted there was no reason to thank
Trump.
"I don't just be saying thank you because somebody said they did
something. And if they did it, genuinely, do you really need to come up to
me and say, 'Boy, you better thank me?'" LaVar Ball said.
The shoes, known as ZO2s, were not an expression of gratitude, he added, but
rather a way of making Trump's "blood pressure go down."
"I sent him some shoes to calm him down. ZO2s bring you down, stop you
from getting all riled up," he said. "That's why I gave him the
shoes. I said it's gonna help him out — it's gonna make his blood
pressure go down. He don't have to worry about all that. Put some ZO2s
on and walk light."
As the patriarch of a high-profile family whose lives are profiled on the
Facebook reality series "Ball in the Family," Ball is no stranger to
the limelight. His other sons are also basketball players: Lonzo is a point
guard for the Los Angeles Lakers and LaMelo is a high school ball player.
LiAngelo, a college freshman, told "Today" that being jailed in
China was "horrible."
He said he agreed with his father's decision to pull him out of UCLA
after the university slapped him and the other two players involved in the
shoplifting incident with a suspension.
Related: UCLA indefinitely suspends three players involved in Chinese
shoplifting incident
"Well, I just want to play basketball, so whatever decision he makes, I
trust it," he said.
The two- to three-month suspension from UCLA is "the whole season pretty
much," he added. "That's just a long time of doing nothing. I&#
39;d rather be playing."
LiAngelo, who is considered a long shot to be drafted, will instead focus on
his NBA prospects, his father said.
"It's going to happen," he said. "He's gonna make money
playing basketball. That's just what it's gonna be — his last name
is Ball. We gonna ball till we fall." |
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