LaVar Ball, the father of UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball, fired back at President Trump on Monday night, saying Trump “shouldn’t have to say anything” if he helped engineer the college student’s release from China following his arrest.
“If you help, you shouldn’t have to say anything,” Ball said in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “Somebody told me about the tweet a couple days ago … why is that on your mind? All this stuff going on, and that’s on your mind, that a father didn’t say thank you? And you’re the head of the U.S.? Come on.”
Ball also told Trump to “stay in [his] lane.”
“Let him do his political affairs, and let me handle my son, and let’s just stay in our lane,” Ball said.
{mosads}Ball’s son, along with two other players, was arrested and accused of shoplifting from a Louis Vuitton store in China during his team’s weeklong trip to the country.
The players faced potential jail sentences for the charge, but Trump, who was also visiting China at the time, spoke to President Xi Jinping about resolving the situation. The players were released and returned to the United States last week.
Upon their return, the players held a press conference during which they thanked the president for his role in helping them return home, which he had asked them to do on Twitter.
When asked last week about Trump’s role in securing the release of his son, LaVar Ball replied, “Who?”
“What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing,” LaVar Ball told ESPN at the time. “Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”
Trump attacked Ball on Twitter following his remarks, saying he should have left LiAngelo Ball in jail.
“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!” Trump tweeted.
Trump later doubled down on his criticism of Ball, saying he should have waited until “his next trip” to work toward the players’ release.
“If I was going to thank somebody, I’d probably thank President Xi,” Ball said Monday evening.