LaVar Ball has found himself in the sports news in some shape or form for the majority of 2017. Lonzo’s father has become a media sensation, offering juicy soundbites and challenging everyone from Steph Curry to Michael Jordan while hyping up his son.
While his presence on sports television has become routine, he recently crossed over to the mainstream news after finding himself in a feud with president Donald Trump. We should’ve seen it coming, but it was still stunning to see the president of the United States beefing with a man famous for being a basketball dad.
It all started with LaVar’s middle son, LiAngelo, being arrested along with two other UCLA players in China. Eventually, Trump got involved while on a subsequent trip to China and reportedly asked the Chinese government to assist in speeding up the process of getting the players back to the United States. In theory, that should not have started a war of words between the two, but this is 2017 and this is Donald Trump and LaVar Ball.
Trump requested Ball and the other players thank him for his assistance. They did, but LaVar refused. Trump called him an “ungrateful fool” on Twitter. Ball then went on CNN in one of the most bizarre, off the rails interviews of the year (which is saying something) and again insisted on not thanking the president.
And now, the most inevitable next step in the Ball-Trump feud has been taken. Donald Trump has been sent a pair of Big Baller Brand sneakers, according to LaVar.
LaVar says he “sent Trump his shoes” at about the 40 second mark of the video above. Mark Cuban called this as the way the entire saga continues and we all knew it would. And yet, here we are having to wonder if this all ends with Trump walking around in some ZO2s.
