LaVar Ball Refuses To Give Trump Credit For Persuading China To Release His Son, Teammates

Mr. Ball reportedly “dismissed” any notion of the President having interceded positively with his son and the other shop-lifting players from UCLA.

The student-athletes were on tour of China when they stole sunglasses from a mall.

LaVar Ball is guilty of a flat contradiction common to liberals, saying he’s “happy” with how things turned out while only throwing shade on those who made it possible.

“Who?” Ball asked when the subject of Trump came up.

More from ESPN:

LaVar Ball downplayed his son’s shoplifting incident in China, as well as President Donald Trump’s involvement in getting LiAngelo Ball and two other UCLA basketball players back to the United States earlier this week.

“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.”

UCLA freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, who had been detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting, landed in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening and addressed the media on Wednesday before being indefinitely suspended by the team.

Trump, who returned late Tuesday from a trip through Asia, raised the players’ case with President Xi Jinping of China during a visit to Beijing last week. All three players offered thanks to Trump during Wednesday’s news conference.

The players were arrested and questioned on Nov. 7 about stealing from high-end stores, including sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to the team’s hotel in Hangzhou, where the Bruins had been staying before leaving for Shanghai to face Georgia Tech.

UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said Wednesday that the players stole from three stores. They were released from custody after posting bail early Nov. 8, on the condition that they surrender their passports; they had been staying at a lakeside hotel in Hangzhou prior to flying home.

“As long as my boy’s back here, I’m fine,” LaVar Ball told ESPN. “I’m happy with how things were handled.”

He’s happy with how it was handled, by…?