Two weeks after a much talked-about appearance on CNN to explain his feud with President Donald Trump, basketball father and businessman LaVar Ball joined “New Day” anchor Chris Cuomo again to discuss the aftermath of that feud and his attempt to patch things up with a gift.
“Fifty percent of the people are going to like it and 50 percent (are) going to be like, ‘Man, that dude’s ungrateful,'” Ball said Tuesday, referring to his reaction to Trump claiming responsibility for ensuring his son, LiAngelo Ball, didn’t end up incarcerated in China following an arrest for shoplifting.
After LiAngelo was let out of China along with two other teammates from the University of California, Los Angeles, basketball team, Trump touted his involvement in the release, prompting the elder Ball to publicly swipe at him, asking, “Who?” Trump then tweeted he “should have left them in jail.”
Ball recently pulled LiAngelo out of UCLA because, he said, the NCAA waited too long to determine his eligibility to play again following the November arrest.
“Did you learn anything since then about what the President did to help get your son out of trouble?” Cuomo asked.
“I haven’t learned anything,” Ball responded.
The Big Baller Brand founder continued, “I even sent him a pair of the ZO2s, come on now.”
When Cuomo pushed him to confirm that he had sent the President of the United States athletic shoes, Ball clarified, “I sent him three pairs: Red, white, and blue, to show him that we’re patriotic … and didn’t get a thank you.”
Ball called the ZO2s a “hot item” and said the shoes should have arrived by now, but insisted he wasn’t stressed about not receiving confirmation of their receipt.
“I tell you what, behind closed doors, I think he got them on his feet, just dancing,” he said. CNN has reached out to the White House regarding the receipt of any Big Baller Brand ZO2s but has not yet gotten a response.
Whether or not the footwear is popular in the White House, Ball maintained that his back-and-forth with President Trump had no effect on his brand’s success.
“People already got their perception of me,” he said. “Some people got it right and some people got it wrong. The ones who got it wrong, I don’t worry about it. The ones who got it right, they’re rolling with the Big Baller Brand. We good.”
