Early this morning, LaVar Ball made an appearance on CNN, and spoke with ESPN, about his decision to pull his 19-year old son, LiAngelo, out of UCLA. Additionally, the duo sat down for an interview on NBC's Today Show, in which LiAngelo provided more details about his shoplifting arrest in China last month.
According to the former UCLA freshman, his teammates were the ones who started stealing from a Louis Vuitton store and then he tagged along.
He told NBC's Today Show (H/T NY Post),
“We all went out one night, went to the malls, went to the Louis Vuitton store and, uh, people started taking stuff, and then, you know, me just not thinking and being with them, I took something too,” Ball said.
“And we left thinking we’ll just get away — you know how kids think,” Ball continued. “I didn’t realize ‘til I got back to my hotel, I’m like, ‘That was stupid.’ But by then it was too late. And then sure enough, the next morning, the police came and got us.”
LiAngelo also spoke about the day and a half he spent locked up in jail cell.
“Oh, it was horrible,” he said of the conditions. “They take your clothes, you wear, like, whatever they have for you, a little jumpsuit or whatever, take your shoestrings and you just sit in a cement cell for however long. It’s just you and all the officers — and they don’t speak English.”
As a result of his arrest in China, UCLA suspended him and his teammates indefinitely once they returned to Los Angeles. Both LaVar and LiAngelo have since explained that he went to UCLA to play basketball, not sit on the sidelines.
“Yeah, that’s the whole season, pretty much,” LiAngelo said. “That’s just a long time of doing nothing. I’d rather be playing.”
LaVar also told ESPN, "I'm going to make him [LiAngelo] way better for the draft than UCLA ever could have."