“LIANGELO BALL ARRESTED IN CHINA ON SUSPICION OF STEALING SUNGLASSES FROM LOUIS VUITTON STORE!” That was all that flashed in America for weeks. What that was talking about, was UCLA basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill, being arrested for shoplifting in China.

UCLA was in Shanghai, China, to play Georgetown University in its first exhibition game. On their one off-day, on November 6, UCLA guards  Ball,  Riley, and  Hill decided to go to a mall near their hotel. While in the luxury brand Louis Vuitton store, they decided to pick up some sunglasses, without paying. Ball  would later go on to say that it was a stupid decision he made and that he regretted it. Surely enough, the next morning, Chinese police officers serenaded their hotel. The three players were taken into custody and brought in for interrogations. Ball, being the highest profile basketball player out of the three, made headlines. This was due to the fact that he was the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, older brother of high school phenom LaMelo Ball, and the son of probably the most infamous name on the internet, Lavar Ball.  Ball and the two other UCLA players were detained overnight before being released on bail the next morning. However, they had to stay in China until the case cleared out. The UCLA prospect was looking at a potential 3-10 years in jail in China, if found guilty, due to China’s strict policy. Unluckily for him, China had a 99.9% conviction rate of finding people guilty. He most likely would have been found guilty, if it weren’t for the president of the United States of America, who also happened to be in China. Donald Trump said he spoke to President Xi Jinping, and got the three players released and flown back to America. Back in America however, the three players got heavily punished by UCLA for failing to adhere to community guidelines. They were all suspended indefinitely for the whole season. Lavar Ball however, was not pleased with this time frame, and decided to pull LiAngelo Ball out of UCLA and said he would not be returning to any college. He had also already pulled his younger son LaMelo Ball out of High School. Lavar Ball officially ended their affiliation with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Basketball when LiAngelo Ball and LaMelo Ball signed with an agent, Harrison Gaines, and started looking for international deals to play for pro-teams. On December 11, 2017, both Ball brothers signed with a Lithuanian professional Basketball team playing in the Baltic League. By doing this, they hope to prepare for the NBA, by bypassing college basketball.