UCLA basketball players arrested in China

[greg775]

So Lonzo Ball's brother and a couple other Bruins were arrested on suspicion of shoplifting and taken away by Chinese authorities. UCLA is there to play Ga. Tech on Saturday.

Lot of speculation that they could spend 1-10 years in prison in China. Speculation that they won't be let go on bond and could be in jail 100 days before they even decide to try them.

 

Any legal experts? Are these kids in trouble or will they get out of jail as good will by the Chinese government? My other comment is: If you were the coaches would you now refuse to play the game Saturday? I would not play the game. Get the teams the hell out of China and keep an administrator there working with the US Embassy to get these players home safely.

 

 

[Brian]

Think they cut off hands for stealing there. No? May have made that up

[LittleHurt05]

I really hope those kids weren't that stupid. Three African-Americans, all 6'6" and taller in a high end Louis Vutton store in China? I have to imagine every eye on the store was squarely on them.

[caulfield12]

On the other hand, basketball is China’s favorite spectator sport, with football quickly catching up.

 

With the numerous connections between the CBA, NBA, athletic shoe companies, marketing....teams coming here every year like the Warriors or Rockets for goodwill tours, they probably don’t sit in jail for the customary month without bail and I think it gets resolved before trial as a “good faith” gesture to the US. China also doesn’t want to get the reputation of being a country where sports teams hesitate to travel to due to restricted criminal rights.

Edited November 8, 2017 by caulfield12

[Leonard Zelig]

Looks like they have been released, but those 3 won't play the game over there.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/ucl...cid=mailsignout

[Soxbadger]

They wont go back with UCLA. Reports are that there is no doubt they are guilty, but UCLA/ Jack Ma are trying to persuade China to release them.

[caulfield12]

During the investigation, the school and Pac-12 Conference have been receiving assistance from Chinese e-commerce goliath Alibaba, the presenting sponsor of the Pac-12 China Game. On Monday, UCLA and Georgia Tech received a tour of Alibaba in Hangzhou and met Joseph Tsai, the executive vice chairman and co-founder of Alibaba.

 

Tsai, who recently reached an agreement in principle to purchase a 49 percent minority stake in the Brooklyn Nets that includes the option to acquire controlling interest of the NBA franchise in 2021, splits his time between Hangzhou and La Jolla, California, where his wife and children reside. While talking to UCLA players at Alibaba on Monday, he made it a point to single out freshman guard Jaylen Hands and tell him he watched him play the Bishop's School while Hands was at Foothills Christian last year.

 

"Every young person makes mistakes, but the key point is how they will handle it after making the mistake," Tsai said before the game Saturday. "I think sometimes things can be very complicated, and the last couple of days I've seen firsthand professionalism on all sides."

 

Before the game in Shanghai on Saturday, the Pac-12 announced that next year's China Game would be a matchup between Cal and Yale; Alibaba extended its sponsorship of the game through 2020.

 

 

Money talks in China...

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/ucla-players-...ory?id=51082652

[LittleHurt05]

President Trump to the rescue!!

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-po...m=.2ab7efb18bd6

[caulfield12]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2744196...paign=editorial

 

Already released and coming back to the US. That was faster than anticipated.

 

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/suspension-not-exp...-191515120.html

 

Players should be suspended, but not expelled.

Edited November 14, 2017 by caulfield12

[Balta1701]

Leftists - “Trump denies young black males a fair trial in China”

[greg775]

Those guys should thank Trump over and over. They could have rotted in a jail over there for years. They caught a break, a big one. If they feel entitled over this one, shame on them. Again, they could be in deep trouble in prison over there, torture and all that.

Dumbasses steal stuff from stores in China?? Geez how dumb are people?

[Kyyle23]

A few days back I woke up in the middle of the night and I literally thought "Oh no. What if Trump and Lavar Ball feud." haha

 

Your dream may come true

 

https://deadspin.com/lavar-ball-burns-presi...vent-1820573432

[Reddy]

Those guys should thank Trump over and over. They could have rotted in a jail over there for years. They caught a break, a big one. If they feel entitled over this one, shame on them. Again, they could be in deep trouble in prison over there, torture and all that.

Dumbasses steal stuff from stores in China?? Geez how dumb are people?

You realize that things like this happen in nearly every administration, right? Trump did his JOB - he didn't go above and beyond. And no other President has had to demand an apology. Sad.

[BigSqwert]

Those guys should thank Trump over and over. They could have rotted in a jail over there for years. They caught a break, a big one. If they feel entitled over this one, shame on them. Again, they could be in deep trouble in prison over there, torture and all that.

Dumbasses steal stuff from stores in China?? Geez how dumb are people?

 

Jail for years and torture? Where has this been confirmed?

[greg775]

You realize that things like this happen in nearly every administration, right? Trump did his JOB - he didn't go above and beyond. And no other President has had to demand an apology. Sad.

Oh cmon. These 3 guys are lucky, lucky lucky that Trump helped them out. He did his job? Rescuing robbers? I think Trump's a chump but in this one, those kids are punks if they aren't grateful to Trump. Again, they were in deep s*** and got rescued. How can you take the kids' side on this one.

[caulfield12]

http://www.guideinchina.com/articles/6/for...l_1493086810915

http://www.upfrontsportstrek.com/blog/who-is-wendell-brown

 

Meanwhile, Wendell Brown, former Ball State FB and Detroit MLK standout has been rotting in prison for well over a year here for doing much less...he was actually teaching American football and English to locals in Chongqing. Trump doesn’t care about someone who isn’t connected to a famous person.

[Quin]

Actually agree with Greg. Ball and the others should thank Trump.

 

But Trump also shouldn't be demanding an apology.

[Quin]

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!

 

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/...303108146892801

 

Stay classy, Mr. President.

 

Sigh

[StrangeSox]

Didn't the players thank him in their press conference before he even whined about it?

 

I'm still amazed that anyone sees this dumpy, fat toddler as some sort of strong leader.

[greg775]

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!

 

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/...303108146892801

 

Stay classy, Mr. President.

I have been neutral on LaVar until this. Those players have committed one of the dumbest, most rude, ridiculous crimes ever. They are basketball players in China (uh, I think they stand out in a store a bit as not being from the area) and steal stuff. And the dad of one of them is not mad at his kid but has this type of attitude. It's just flat out awful. The kid apologized so maybe the kid is humble, but the dad should be ashamed of himself. I know that's impossible but I'm fine with Trump's tweet calling out LaVar for his flat-out awful take on this situation. Again, to do what those players did is about as dumb a crime as one could ever imagine. U.S. basketball players thinking they'll get away with stealing stuff in ... China?? Those kids are dumb, LaVar, very dumb for thinking stealing stuff was a good idea in a China store. And lucky Trump helped them out.

Edited November 19, 2017 by greg775

[caulfield12]

When has Trump gone out of his way to criticize anyone who wasn’t a minority for not thanking him?

 

Didn’t the players acknowledge this during the past week, already? This was all about going after an equivalent loudmouth on social media.

 

Trump's social media director, Dan Scavino, fired back at Ball on his personal Twitter account Saturday afternoon, saying Ball's son, LiAngelo, "would be in China for a long, long, long time" without the President's assistance. "Wannabe @Lakers coach, BIG MOUTH @Lavarbigballer knows if it weren't for President @realDonaldTrump, his son would be in China for a long, long, long time! #FACT," Scavino wrote. source:cnn

 

I don’t even remember the name of Obama’s social media director.

 

[pettie4sox]

I hope Lavar keeps firing at him and DT responds. They are both dumbasses but it'll be entertaining to see how long it will go.

[caulfield12]

It would be nice if we had a president who actually did things because they were the RIGHT thing to do...not to kick off the latest cultural war. And not for public thanks/gratitude/appreciation.

 

In this case, it's not even clear what exactly the right thing to do was here. One thinks that the 3 student athletes aren't going to receive the message unless they have their athletic scholarships revoked. Even that won't have much of an impact on the Ball family in terms of the serious of shoplifting, especially in a country where they could have ended up with harsh jail term of roughly 8-10 years. Athletes continue to receive the message that they're special and that SOMEONE will bail them out of nearly any situation if they can bring profit to universities and/or professional teams.

 

Not saying Trump was wrong...just that there are tons of other Americans (see the story I linked above) that are suffering even more while jailed abroad. It's just that they are not famous or are lacking political connections to get them out.

 

 

[greg775]

The President of the United States, tweeting that he should’ve left three collegiate athletes (and US citizens) in a Chinese jail because one of their fathers didn't display enough gratitude to him, is where we are when it comes to the office of the President.

 

 

But you keep being greg.

I don't like the attitude of Mr. Ball. It angers me. The Trump part of this doesn't anger me as much. It's the entitlement of the players. They could be doing hard labor for 10 years and Trump got them released. If Trump had a do-over he'd probably let them rot in China jail so to speak.

 

It would be nice if we had a president who actually did things because they were the RIGHT thing to do...not to kick off the latest cultural war. And not for public thanks/gratitude/appreciation.

 

In this case, it's not even clear what exactly the right thing to do was here. One thinks that the 3 student athletes aren't going to receive the message unless they have their athletic scholarships revoked. Even that won't have much of an impact on the Ball family in terms of the serious of shoplifting, especially in a country where they could have ended up with harsh jail term of roughly 8-10 years. Athletes continue to receive the message that they're special and that SOMEONE will bail them out of nearly any situation if they can bring profit to universities and/or professional teams.

 

Not saying Trump was wrong...just that there are tons of other Americans (see the story I linked above) that are suffering even more while jailed abroad. It's just that they are not famous or are lacking political connections to get them out.

Good post. One of your best ever.

 

[RockRaines]

Is there any proof that Trump actually got them released?