Even if all the father of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball, LaVar Ball, did was insinuate he didn’t even know who President Donald Trump was, it would have been likely it was only a matter of time before Trump fired back.
But when LaVar continued, saying Trump was getting too much credit for freeing his other son LiAngelo Ball and his two teammates who were arrested in China for shoplifting and getting them back to the United States safely (where they have since been indefinitely suspended by the Bruins), it was essentially a guarantee the president was going to go at LaVar.
Two days later, Trump finally has, and we officially have the feud between the sitting U.S. President and the CEO of Big Baller Brand we’ve all been waiting for. So far, it is not disappointing:
Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
Regardless of politics, the president insinuating that he should have left three of his own citizens in a foreign jail is certainly… notable. The meaning of that is for smarter minds than this writer’s to decide, but what is clear is that LaVar got exactly what he wanted.
No one is going to be talking about Lonzo Ball’s shooting struggles or haircut now, not with all eyes firmly shifted to his father’s feud with, again, the actual president of the United States.
That type of publicity and a mention from the president’s actual account are invaluable marketing for Big Baller Brand, which may have just become the official shoe of #TheResistance and at the very least is now even more culturally relevant.
Plus, by getting into a war of words with the most duel-happy president since Andrew Jackson, LaVar is truly about to put his proclamation that he’s “never lost” to the test.
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