On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted about the release of three UCLA basketball players, most notably including LiAngelo Ball, brother of Lakers’ rookie Lonzo Ball.
Donald Trump demands credit on Twitter for freeing LiAngelo Ball, UCLA basketball players from China. He got it
Of course.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Ball and teammates Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were detained in Hangzhou after being accused of stealing sunglasses during the Bruins’ tour of China, in which the team played Georgia Tech in its season opener.
The trio stayed in China while the rest of the team traveled home as they tried to resolve the allegations. Trump, who was in the region when the incident happened, spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the situation.
President Donald Trump, who was visiting China last week on a tour of Asia, said he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to assist on the matter.
“President Xi has been terrific on the subject,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One following the conclusion of his trip Tuesday.
“What they did was unfortunate,” Trump added. “You know, you’re talking about very long prison sentences. They do not play games.”
Despite Trump’s assertion that the UCLA players were “headed for 10 years in jail,” in an effort to maximize the appearance of his efforts, legal experts never believed the trio faced any serious repercussions. Chinese shoplifting law is based on the province and value of goods stolen, however even the high-end sunglasses the UCLA players were alleged to have taken could have likely fallen under the lowest threshold of punishment.
Furthermore, legal experts believed the political ramifications of punishing the players far exceeded the likelihood they would be imprisoned.
“Whatever the legal issues are, they are trumped by the politics,” Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science at USC specializing in Chinese politics and society, wrote in an email. “China does not want anything to detract from the warm welcome they have planned for the American president, so they will solve this problem as quickly as possible, which would include having the young men leave the country — after a suitable apology — as quickly as possible.”
While it’s possible the players could have faced a 10-year sentence, no legal expert believed that was a remote possibility — despite President Trump portraying his role in speaking to Chinese officials as saving them.
The players thanked Trump in their apology on Wednesday:
The three players have all been suspended from the team indefinitely.
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