Back in November, UCLA basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were all arrested in China under shoplifting charges after being caught on surveillance stealing in multiple retail stores including that of Louis Vuitton. The UCLA team was set to be in China for a week all while officially kicking off the season against Georgia Tech.
After being arrested for the shoplifting acts, the three players were released on bail but directed to remain in their hotel as the country of China handled this case in accordance with the law. The players potentially faced three to 10 years on charges of grand larceny, until President Trump traveled to China to appeal to Chinese leader Xi Jiping resulting in LiAngelo Ball and his fellow teammates being granted the privilege to board a plane back to America with no consequences.
Following their return to California, Ball, Riley and Hill participated in a press conference in which they expressed their apologies and took accountability for their actions and poor decision making. It was also announced that the three players would be suspended from the UCLA basketball team indefinitely.
Based off such a decision, Lavar Ball, LiAngelo Ball’s father, has decided to withdraw LiAngelo from the university. Lavar believes that LiAngelo should have been back on the team in a matter of two weeks and he can no longer leave such circumstances in the hands of the UCLA coaching staff and administration.
According to Lavar, “I’m not sitting back and waiting. He wasn’t punished this bad in China. We get back over here and the consequences were even stiffer than China. So basically they’re in jail here.”
The UCLA coaching staff ensures that they respect Lavar Ball’s decision and wishes LiAngelo and the family much success in the future. Lavar has made it clear that he is now planning to prepare LiAngelo for the NBA Draft. He stated, “I’m going to make him way better for the draft than UCLA ever could have.
Do you think Lavar is making the right decision to withdraw LiAngelo from UCLA? If he is to go through with such a decision, do you think LiAngelo will ever be considered to play pro basketball based off of his skills and reputation?
