This UCLA’s Men’s Basketball trio includes the likes of Jalen Hill (18), Cody Riley (19), and LiAngelo Ball (19) son of the infamous LaVar Ball.  While playing overseas in a preseason tournament, these three freshmen were charged for allegedly stealing sunglasses from a high-end retail outlet, Louis Vuitton.   

However, LaVar would not thank the president for what he did for his son and his son’s fellow teammates.  It can blow a person’s mind on how you are not thankful for someone, let alone the President of the United States of America, who went out of their way to help one of your loved ones, saving LiAngelo and his teammates from a maximum of ten years in a Chinese Jail.

The President had no need to go to China to help the players out, as he could have easily “left them out to dry” but he didn’t, because that’s the kind of person he is.  President Trump went overseas to help save three Americans from jail time in a foreign country, and all who are involved from the players to the players’ families should be very thankful of him.   

This incident would not have gained nearly the amount of attention it has if not for LaVar Ball and the “character” he is and has become. The shock is how President Trump and LaVar clashing on social media and Ball bashing the president in an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN.  When you have two people with such vibrant personalities as President Trump and LaVar Ball, something big was bound to happen and that it did.   

The President could have gone about the situation in a more “presidential” manner possibly, while still trying to get his point across.  Donald Trump tweeted out that he helped save the three basketball players from jail and that they should be very thankful of him.  One point that Ball brought up in his interview with CNN was that “if he knew he really helped, then he would not have had to say anything about it”.

In defense of LaVar Ball, that is a very fair statement, however the tweet by President Trump might have gotten misunderstood.  The tweet came off as if he wanted to make sure the players knew that if it wasn’t for him, that they could be spending multiple years in a Chinese jail cell.   That is how LaVar ball saw the statement and tweet, but all President Trump wanted to do was to have the players thank him.  

The minimum jail time in China for a shoplifting offense is three years, while the maximum could be up to ten years.  Also, with having the freshmen thank him, these are years the players could have been facing in a Chinese jail if not for President Donald Trump intervening and meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.