Trump says he should have left UCLA players in Chinese jail

In this July 7, 2017 photo, LaVar Ball, father of Los Angeles Lakers’ Lonzo Ball and UCLA player LiAngelo Ball, watches the Lakers play the Los Angeles Clippers during an NBA summer league basketball game, in Las Vegas. President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday, November 19, 2017, that he should have left three UCLA basketball players, including LiAngelo Ball, accused of shoplifting in China in jail after LaVar Ball minimized Trump’s involvement in winning the players’ release during an interview on Saturday, November 18, 2017, with ESPN. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he should have left in jail the three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China.

Trump’s remark came after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized his involvement in winning the players’ release in comments to ESPN.

In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said: “Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!”

On Friday, LaVar Ball told ESPN: “Who?”, 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.”

According to Trump, he raised the players’ detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his recent visit to Beijing.

The players returned to the United States last week. They have been indefinitely suspended from the team.

The younger Ball, along with fellow freshmen Jalen Hill and Cody Riley, were 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 was 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 also 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,” he added.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, re-tweeted Trump’s tweet and included his own comment.

“The President would have left American students in a foreign jail because their families didn’t lavish sufficient praise on him,” Schiff wrote. “How can someone in such a big office be so small?”   /kga