LaVar Ball Pulls Son LiAngelo Ball Out Of UCLA After China Shoplifting Scandal [Breaking]

LiAngelo Ball has quit the UCLA basketball team and has been moved off campus by father and manager, LaVar Ball. LaVar Ball is angry, saying that UCLA is trying to break LiAngelo Ball’s spirit after he was arrested for shoplifting on a team trip to China. Even though LiAngelo Ball has never played a single minute for UCLA, where he was a freshman, LaVar Ball says his son has dropped out of school and is now at home with younger brother LaMelo, who is homeschooled.

LaVar Ball has already been feuding with President Donald Trump, who he says did nothing to secure the release of LiAngelo Ball and two other UCLA players from house arrest in China. Now, he is said to be in a similar predicament with the powers that be at UCLA.

LaVar Ball says that China dropped the charges against LiAngelo Ball and two other UCLA players, so he doesn’t understand why UCLA is still punishing the players. All three players have apologized for shoplifting, and LaVar Ball believes that this is enough.

But the PAC-12 Commissioner Larry Scott says that LiAngelo Ball and the two other students embarrassed UCLA, the conference, and themselves.

“It’s certainly very unfortunate and very disappointing to me as commissioner of the conference, when we’re guests in another country, guests of our partners, that any of our students should be involved in this incident. That’s not the standard we hold our students to, especially when they are traveling and they are ambassadors of their university and the United States.”

TMZ broke the story that LiAngelo Ball is no longer a student at UCLA. LiAngelo Ball had been on the UCLA basketball team, but was suspended indefinitely after getting arrested for shoplifting on a UCLA team trip to China, and then admitting that he indeed did shoplift sunglasses.

But even though LiAngelo Ball is an adult, it is his father who removed him from UCLA, saying that LiAngelo won’t return. LaVar Ball serves as manager for all three of his basketball-playing sons including oldest son Lonzo Ball who is in his first year on the Los Angeles Lakers after leaving UCLA early himself. Youngest son LaMelo Ball also plays basketball. In the past, LaVar Ball reported that all three of his sons would play for UCLA and then go on to the NBA and the Lakers.

LaVar Ball spoke publicly, saying that UCLA punishing son LiAngelo was unfair.

“There’s no need to break down a kid’s spirit for making a mistake.”

LaVar Ball has not only run afoul of UCLA, President Donald Trump, and PAC-12, but he also caused trouble for the Los Angeles Lakers where he broke a rule now renamed the “LaVar Ball Rule.” For son Lonzo Ball’s first game for the Lakers, LaVar Ball literally held court on the court at the Staples Center, holding an impromptu press conference. Now, Staples Center employees have been told that nobody without credentials is allowed on the court, i.e. LaVar Ball, according to ESPN.

When Lonzo Ball wasn’t playing at the level that LaVar Ball promised, LaVar Ball blamed the Lakers coaching staff.

“They’re soft. They don’t know how to coach my son. I know how to coach him. I tell him to go get the victory. Stop messing around.”

It’s unclear per NCAA rules if LiAngelo Ball will need to sit out a year if he is able to transfer to another Division I school. Sources who know father LaVar Ball believe that LiAngelo will transfer to another Southern California school so LaVar can keep tabs on the basketball program.

Although LiAngelo Ball is said to be a decent basketball player, he was not a stand-out on the UCLA team where other freshman got playing time, including Jaylen Hands, who starts for the UCLA team. LiAngelo Ball’s future NCAA prospects are unclear at this time.