LiAngelo Ball is apparently headed back to the United States, though his fate after a shoplifting arrest in China is yet unknown.
Ball and two other UCLA men’s basketball players — Jaylen Hill and Cody Riley — were arrested last week while the team was in the country to start their season with a game against Georgia Tech on Friday. But all three missed the game in Shanghai because the three were arrested and questioned by police after an incident in a shopping center in Hangzhou, where both teams visited in the days leading up to the game.
It was feared that Ball and his teammates would need to stay in China for upwards of another fortnight, and the three did not leave China with their teams over the weekend.
But The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the three Bruins players were spotted at Pudong International Airport and appear to be on their way home.
UCLA freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were seen late Tuesday at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport checking into a Delta flight bound for Los Angeles, airline staff said. The flight took off after 9 p.m.
There’s no word on what will happen to the charges the players picked up in China, but Donald Trump specifically asked Chinese president Xi Jinping for help in the matter.
It appears that plea may have helped get LaVar Ball’s family back to full strength stateside sooner rather than later.
