LiAngelo Ball Says He Wasn't Going to Thank Trump, But UCLA Made Him at the Last Minute

It seems like forever ago that LiAngelo Ball was standing up at a podium, genuinely seeming contrite for shoplifting in China, and thanking President Trump for helping get he and his teammates out of hotel arrest earlier than they otherwise would have. But that was then, not even a month ago, and this is now.

Now LaVar Ball has pulled LiAngelo out of UCLA, and continued a kayfabe feud with the nation’s president, bragging recently on CNN about sending him several pairs of coveted Big Baller Brand sneakers. (In a twist, former Apprentice contestant Omarosa has reportedly been involved in the feud behind the scenes as part of her now-former responsibilities at the White House.)

LiAngelo and his younger brother LaMelo are taking their talents to Lithuania, where they will play for a coach who apparently moonlights as a meat salesman. And LiAngelo is essentially walking back his thank-you to Donald Trump.

“They wanted to hear that,” he said on the Breakfast Club this morning, as transcribed by Larry Brown Sports. “And he tweeted about it before my speech, so I had to add him in there right before I gave it. I wrote my original speech and then I had to put his part in there right before. My school wanted to hear it. Before I went up there they were like, ‘You’ve gotta thank him.’ I just threw him in there real quick before I gave my speech.”

So, that thank-you was insincere?

“If they didn’t tell me to do it, it wouldn’t have been in there, to be honest,” he said.

This has been the latest edition of the Big Baller Brand platform-amorphous reality program.