TMZ – It’s a stunning move … LiAngelo Ball will no longer be on the UCLA basketball team and, in fact, he will not be a student at UCLA … because his father, LaVar Ball, is removing him from the institution … TMZ Sports has learned. As you know, LiAngelo was indefinitely suspended from the team after he stole from several stores during a trip to China. LiAngelo was placed on house arrest but was sprung after Trump and others went to bat for him.
It was crazy enough when LaVar Ball took his youngest kid, LaMelo, out of high school. But at least that could kind of be defended by saying hey the family is rich and famous and he wants the kid to travel and train full-time while not being bothered by things like “studying or “learning to play with teammates.” Pulling LiAngelo Ball out of UCLA? Thats fucking nonsensical. LiAngelo, while dumb enough to shoplift in China, is still a college student AKA a goddamn adult. So pulling him out of school and off of a promising D1 basketball team is a lot different than just yanking your 15 year old son out of high school.
Its just another delusional move from the guy who thinks he can somehow mold all 3 of his kids into elite NBA athletes by himself alone. And this part?
We’re told LaVar believes the suspension was unfair, especially since the charges were dropped. LaVar’s people tell TMZ Sports the famous dad thinks, “There’s no need to break down a kid’s spirit for making a mistake.”
The kid was shoplifting in fucking CHINA. He’s lucky he’s not in Chinese prison still. I think a little suspension from UCLA was a pretty fair response.
Real question though, what’s he do with LiAngelo? Just take the time off to train? If I’m an NBA executive I’m not going near the kid who didn’t even play a game in college and just expect him to jump right into the NBA. I would say he could go play ball overseas, but if I’m him I’m probably never leaving the United States again. Part of me can’t help but think its another storyline for their reality show as LaVar looks to overtake the Kardashians for Reality TV royalty. So this should be an interesting one to watch play out.
Yahoo – Wendell Brown, 30, is a former football star in Detroit, a standout at powerhouse King High School and then a three-year starting linebacker at Ball State in Indiana where he graduated in 2009. He later played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, a number of arena teams and even a professional league in Austria. He also coached the game, at King High and then a season as an assistant at Adrian College, a D-III program in Michigan. In 2015, he found his way to Chongqing, China, a city of some 18 million in the southwest part of the country, to play and then, after an injury, coach in the American Football League of China. It seemed like an incredible opportunity. While there he taught English to adults and football to kids. He spoke at the U.S. Embassy about the game. To supplement his income, he opened a cross training business, Brown Elite Fitness. As a 6-foot, 225-pound African-American in the middle of China, he stood out. Brown is in incredible physical condition and was a cast member once on the Discovery Network reality television show, “American Muscle.” Pictures of him putting middle-aged locals through workouts and barking motivational sayings at them – “Elite!”, “All Day!”, “Eight Days a Week”— entertained his family back home. “We used to joke with him, ‘You look like Billy Blanks,’ ” Antoinette said with a laugh. Life was great until Sept. 24, 2016, when Brown attended a birthday party for a friend at a bar. As Wendell’s side tells it, he struggled to blend in when out on the town because many Chinese assumed he was either rich or famous. That night some men wanted to drink with him, but Brown declined. They got angry and a dispute broke out. Brown was later arrested for hitting a man. Brown claimed he never hit anyone and only raised his arms to block bottles being thrown at him. Regardless, Brown was taken to the Chongqing Jiangbei detention center. He had never before been arrested. Faced with no American-style bail available, no discovery process about the evidence against him and a confusing array of laws that bear little resemblance to the United States, he’s spent the past 14 months in a Chinese jail.
This is insanity. The guy got in a bar fight and has been in jail for 14 fucking months. That is absolutely criminal. This is why I don’t want to travel anywhere. I’m cool with Boston, LA, maybe sprinkle in some of the midwest. Its either ISIS bullshit or school shootings or corrupt ass foreign governments locking you up and throwing away the key. You can’t win, which is why I cringe every time somebody posts that misguided fucking Jeff Daniels speech from the Newsroom about how America isn’t the best country in the world anymore.
Um, yea it still is. You do something bad in America, you get treated fairly (for the most part) and punished accordingly with the crime. But you find yourself in a bad situation in another country like Wendell Brown did and boom you’re in jail for over a year.
Unless you’re a pseudo celebrity like LiAngelo Ball you’re basically fucked. According to this Dan Wetzel article the conviction rate of Chinese prosecutors is 99.2%. That is not okay. This is why I prefer to go somewhere I can blend in and being a 5’8″ white guy with a red beard, there’s not many places I can do that besides maybe Ireland or England.
You just know this guy was a target being a 6 foot tall black dude walking around the streets of China. Every dickhead always wants to start shit with the outsider. Doesn’t matter if its Faneuil Hall or fucking Hong Kong.
“According to Brown’s friends who attended the trial, the evidence against him fell apart. The Chinese don’t release details or evidence and there is no independent media in China, however, his friends said the video surveillance showed he didn’t hit anyone, let alone with a bottle like it was alleged. It was revealed the man who claimed he was hit and had his eye injured by Brown, actually had suffered the injury in a previous incident, according to Brown’s friends. They claim Brown took the stand in his own defense and was compelling and convincing, noting that considering his size and strength, had he wanted to fight there would have been significant injuries. That was July. There is still no verdict. It’s been four months without a ruling and no one knows when, if ever, one will come.”
Now he faces 3-10 years in jail for something as small as a bar fight. As Brown said in his own defense, if he *really* wanted to fight he would have done some damage. He probably could have just caved in the faces of half a dozen Chinese dudes before any could have stopped him.
We joke about the hollow nature of internet condolences, but seriously prayers to this guy. Hey Donald, you think you can swing back into China like when Costanza forgot his hat and get Xi to spring this dude too? Lets stop letting our own people get locked up abroad for nothing.
Reuters – Three UCLA basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting were headed back to the United States on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had sought the help of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the case…
“What they did was unfortunate,” Trump told reporters earlier in Manila. He said the trio, who have been held since last week, could have faced long prison sentences, and described Xi’s response as “terrific.”
The Donald is on the board! The effort to repeal and replace Obamacare fizzled out earlier this year. North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear weapons program. The Robert Mueller investigation is on-going. Tax reform will be an uphill battle. It’s been a tough first year in office for Donald Trump, but LiAngelo Ball is coming home!
UCLA hosts Central Arkansas Wednesday night. It will be interesting to see if Ball and teammates Cody Riley and Jalen Hill face any further discipline when they arrive home. UCLA head coach Steve Alford took a brave stand and benched them for the Georgia Tech game in Shanghai. As opposed to breaking them out of the hotel they were confined to and further pissing off the Chinese government.
As we said last week, this shoplifting incident had all the makings of an international incident. Thankfully LaVar Ball was right. It wasn’t “that big a deal.” Though it did make its way into discussions between the President of the United States and the President of the People’s Republic of China. I guess more serious discussions on human rights, currency manipulation and unbalanced trade relations will have to wait until next time.
It figures that Trump’s first win as president will prominently play into a reality television show plot line. I don’t know if LaVar Ball meant for the family’s China trip to go down this way, but he’s now got a hell of an act to top for season three of Ball in the Family.
The NBA Offseason is a goddamn rollercoaster of emotions and its the only thing keeping me entertained until football starts up again. We got Chris Paul to the Rockets, Paul George and Gordon Hayward possibly to the Celtics, Carmelo Anthony trying to get a buyout from the Knicks, the Porzingis trade rumors, the Celtics trading the No. 1 overall pick, the Lavar Big Baller Brand bullshit, and not to mention Phil Jackson getting shitcanned by the Knicks.
The NBA offseason is literally overflowing with storylines and gives us the juice we need. It beats the hell out of every other sport’s offseason where big moves are few and far between.
I don’t really care to get into every team in the NBA’s salary cap situation because that is a goddamn rabbit hole. So I know half these teams either don’t have the cap space or the assets to bring in max guys, but now we got teams like the Rockets reportedly trying to bring in Paul George. Ya know, the same Paul George that the Celtics are trying to trade for and pair with Hayward, IT, and Horford.
Basically all the reports are saying that the Celtics need to wait until the start of free agency to sign Gordon Hayward before they can (or would even want to) trade for George. So I guess I’ll just sit here with my dick in my hand until July 1st.
USA Today – Saturday’s AAU matchup between LaVar Ball’s Big Ballers and the Compton Magic could not have gone worse for the outspoken father of Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball. With James Harden in attendance, the Big Ballers, led by LaMelo, were blown out 109-57. According to USA TODAY Sports’ Josh Peter, it got to the point where Compton Magic players were talking trash to LaVar as they celebrated plays.
Welp, thats what happens you talk nonstop shit every day to anyone who will listen. The second you don’t back it up you are going to get absolutely clowned. To make it worse it was getting clowned to the tune of a 50 point blowout while teenagers laugh in your face.
Thats the problem with LaVar, he’s basically setting his kids up for this kind of shit. If you’re Lonzo and a top-3 NBA draft pick, then sure you don’t give a shit. But if you’re the 15 year old third brother, who’s throwing up bricks all goddamn game, maybe, just maybe the LaVar Big Baller Brand bullshit is in your head a little bit more than the NBA Lottery Pick brother.
But how about this fucking quote from LaVar legit during the game.
“A few minutes later, Ball opened his mouth again and told one of his players, “This ain’t nothing but entertainment. You want to know what I’m going to do when I get out of here? I’m going to get a burger, lay down and take a nap.’’
Thats probably the worse shit this guy’s said yet, especially if you want to pretend to be a coach on top of everything else. I know its AAU basketball and there is NOTHING worse than the generation of whiny, entitled AAU players that the NBA is filled with today, but holy shit lets not even pretend the game is a competition.
That is a TERRIBLE precedent to set.
LaVar Ball; tastemaker, billion dollar brand builder, AAU coach of the year.
In a stunning turn of events last night, the Celtics did NOT get hosed by the ping pong balls in the NBA Draft Lottery. More than 12 hours later and I am still shocked.
I was biting a towel, I was ready for it, I was fully expecting the C’s to get porked last night. We even had that smiling bastard Magic Johnson up there threatening to steal our shine.
I just want to take a quick second to once again thank the Brooklyn Nets for what may go down as the worst/best trade in the history of sports. Hershel Walker, please sit down.
Billy King really should be fired all over again. #Nets
I mean the number of times the C’s have taken a beating by the ping pong balls is insane. This team has never won the draft lottery. Ever. Now obviously having 17 championships doesn’t routinely put you in pole position to win the No. 1 overall pick. But even when they’ve been up there hoping against hope, they typically get fucked. Lets just run through the past few years real quick.
2014: Best odds at No. 5 overall. C’s dropped to No. 6 and took Marcus Smart
2007: The Oden/Durant draft that would make or break two franchises. Best odds at No. 2 overall. C’s dropped to No. 5 somehow and draft Jeff Green. Green then got shipped out in the Ray Allen trade.
You can go through the whole history of the Celtic’s lottery results here, but the only time the C’s EVER improved their position was 1986, when they had the best odds at No. 5 and ended up at No. 2 where they took Len Bias. Who, ya know, died 2 days later. So, not a great example.
Now we turn our attention to the beautiful and shiny words “Number One Overall Pick.” By most accounts Markelle Fultz is the guy to take here.
Unless of course Danny wants to wet his beak in the Big Baller Brand and take Lavar (I mean Lonzo) Ball.
Everyone after that is too much of a project to reach for at No. 1. I don’t give a shit that the Celtics have 11 guards on their roster, don’t mess around, take the best player. And as previously mentioned, me and Markelle are already best friends and he’s looking forward to wearing green, so just make it official Danny.
Or the C’s could trade the pick. I don’t know about you, but now that its officially the No. 1 pick I’m a little more hesitant to deal it unless you are getting an absolute stud. I love Jimmy Butler, but 2 years of Butler for 10 years of a potential stud like Fultz? Eh. Paul George? Not for the 1 year he has left on his contract. By all accounts George wants to be a Laker, so I don’t see this happening.
I heard Toucher and Rich this morning throw out Anthony Davis, who I would trade legitimately everyone on the roster to get. I don’t know why The Brow always gets thrown out in trade rumors. I legitimately believe he is going to be the best player in the NBA sooner than later and teams don’t just give those guys away.
The move here is to draft Fultz and let Brad Stevens figure it out. Him and Isaiah would be a dynamite 1-2 scoring punch. Team them up with Horford, Crowder, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley (assuming no one gets traded) and thats a pretty goddamn good team. Or maybe the C’s deal one of their guards like Bradley and bring in a guy like Gordon Hayward.
Either way, I think you keep the pick and continue to build. If you can swing a max guy like Hayward then that only accelerates things. What I don’t wanna see is perennial all-star Markelle Fultz playing for someone else while we bemoan the fact we sold that guy for 2 years of some to-be-named rental.
The C’s have traded a couple of lottery picks over the years that look bad. (No, not Jeff Green because he sucks.) The fact that the C’s traded Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson, who were drafted 4 years apart, instead of building with a core of Billups, Johnson and Pierce, is nuts. Thats a pretty solid team right there. Throw in Antoine Walker with that core? Kobe and Shaq woulda had no rings and maybe Toine wouldn’t be broke playing ball in Puerto Rico.
PS – I can’t help but dance on the graves of the fallen.
The fact that less than 300 of the Big Baller Brand shoes were sold on day one is laugh out loud funny. After Nike, Adidas and Under Armour told Lavar Ball to go fuck himself he says fine I’ll do it myself. If you are comparing your son to Michael Jordan, Steph Curry and LeBron James you NEED to sell more than 300 pairs.
Now don’t get it twisted. Selling 300 of anything in a day by yourself is no small feat, I would be thrilled to sell 300 baseball cards in a day, but an NBA Draft Lottery Pick I am not. I mean if you do the math thats like $150K which is a pretty nice day at the office, but again Lonzo Ball is going to be throwing around $150K like they’re fun coupons in a couple of months.
But selling fucking sneakers for $500 takes some big balls, not to mention the $250 SANDALS.
Hell I still bide my time until some nice Nike’s come through Marshall’s so I can cop those things for like 60% off. So good luck selling any sneaker not called Yeezys for that kind of money Lavar, Lonzo or whoever the fuck is running that operation.
When Lonzo Ball finds out his $495 shoes gonna be at Payless for $4.95
ESPN – LeBron James directed a cease-and-desist order of sorts on Tuesday to LaVar Ball, the outspoken father of three — including star UCLA freshman Lonzo Ball — who said earlier this month that his children are set up better for future success than those of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ star. “Keep my kids’ name out of your mouth. Keep my family out of your mouth,” James said of LaVar Ball to ESPN on Tuesday
“Seriously Dad, stop. LeBron is going to make a point out of posterizing me when they play the Celtics next year.” Something like that is how I imagine the Ball household right now with LaVar talking shit non-stop. Lonzo must be loving this. Your father just chirping the two guys who have won 6 of the last 8 MVPs in LeBron and Steph Curry. Because I’m sure next fall when they see the rookie on the court they’re not going to make it a point to try and stuff Lonzo in a locker just to spite his loudmouth father.
LaMar basically said LeBron’s kids are gonna be bums because their father was too good. And LeBron rightfully so told LaMar to shut the fuck up. I mean, I get riled up when someone says something about my dog so LeBron and I are basically on the same page here. Godspeed Lonzo. Do not be surprised when LeBron is targeting you with off the backboard slams because of some shit your dad said.
The 300s 