Three UCLA freshmen have been suspended indefinitely from the basketball team, one day after returning home from China, where they were detained and accused of shoplifting, announced head coach Steve Alford at a news conference at the university on Wednesday.
"They're going to have to regain the trust of this athletic department, of this university, and because this was such a high-profile international matter, the trust of the general public," Alford said, adding that the school is working through a review process with its office of student conduct.
The three players — LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley — also spoke at the news conference, and each one apologized and admitted to stealing. They were supposed to play Georgia Tech at the Pac-12 China Game but were detained on Nov. 7, spending one night at a police station and remaining at a Hangzhou hotel for nearly a week.
"I want to start off by saying how embarrassed and ashamed I am for disappointing my family, my teammates, my coaches and the entire UCLA community," said Riley. "I take full responsibility for the mistake I have made — shoplifting."
"What I did was stupid," said Hill, "there's just no other way to put it."
"I'm extremely sorry for those who I let down," said Ball, who is the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers player Lonzo Ball. "And I take full responsibility for my actions."
Each player also thanked President Trump.
Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted, "Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!"
Trump arrived in Beijing as part of his Asia trip one day after the players were accused of shoplifting, and he used the state visit to bring up their fate with Chinese President Xi Jinping, reports The Washington Post.
On Tuesday before leaving the Philippines, Trump told reporters he "had a great conversation" with Xi and went on to talk about the American students. "What they did was unfortunate. You're talking about very long prison sentences. They do not play games. He was terrific and they're working on it right now."
Later that day the players were on their way home to Los Angeles.
White House chief of staff John Kelly called the three players over the weekend, according to UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, who also spoke at the news conference.
Guerrero provided more details about the incident, saying the students stole items from three shops near their hotel on the evening of Nov. 6 during a block of free time.
The next morning, police arrived at their hotel and interviewed players and searched bags. Ball, Hill and Riley were then taken to a police station, said Guerrero, and were freed on the morning of Nov. 8 on $2,200 bail. They had to surrender their passports and agree to travel restrictions.
Hunter Jenkins
Hang all three, we need to save face.
Camden White
Holy fuck… always have to give niggers those second chances… It's sad that Trump had to waste diplomatic capital on subhumans.
Luke Foster
Why do the niggers act like everything is theirs to take?
Adrian Morris
Should've left those nigger shoplifters over there.
Colton Baker
Should be sentenced to hard labor, maybe even some kind of special North Korean exchange program.
Parker Rivera
Amazing. All they had to do was not commit a crime and they can't even do that.
Easton Parker
...
Christopher Ross
sacred niggerballers bet your life if one of you did that you'd be serving the full 10. thanks trump.
Caleb Rodriguez
I'm very nearly certain they could literally not help themselves.
Nolan Morales
what did these stupid niggers steal? oh wait lemme guess sneakers
Austin Morris
...
Brody James
Why the fuck did Trump save these niggers?
David Myers
cant let based niggers think there are consequences for their actions can we
Zachary Russell
American nigger worship
Mason Robinson
Because now they publicly kissed the ring and niggerball fans/players have to acknowledge the fact that their favorite college niggers would be in a chink clink for 10 years without Dr President Donald J Trump stepping in
Colton Bennett
In the days of Mao's power he made political prisoners would work heavy labor until death, I bet the gulags are still around.
Austin Murphy
...
Andrew Jenkins
...
Jace Roberts
They literally got canned from the team, and all of the niggers are saying that Trump didn't do shit and that they would have been released anyways.
Niggers will never be grateful, what part of that don't you cucks understand?
Lincoln Murphy
Why are you calling me a cuck you stupid faggot I'm explaining some optics. There exists now and forever video of these niggers thanking the president for helping them, and you're fucking wrong because they're still on the team just suspended because college sports niggers are catered to more than any other student demographic at uni's. Quit flailing around you autistic faggot.
Lucas Price
Holy shit, you actually are a cuck. That was a chance to remove three niggers from America forever, and Trump fucked it up.
Thomas Foster
That would've gone down really well for his public image eh? He played the cards right and now the niggers have to be grateful and any whinging will make em look niggardly.
Jeremiah Gomez
Who the fuck cares what the Jewish media thinks? You're an absolute cuckold. Those three niggers should be rotting in a Chinese prison.
Brandon Garcia
Notice what they did not do? Notice something missing? Like… asking their victims for forgiveness, for example.
Zachary Brooks
Holy shit I just heard about this douche and his family the other day. This kid comes from the Ball family. A nigger married a coalburner and together they had 3 sons. The father decided he wanted them all to play pro basketball and has had them in basketball bootcamp since they were little kids. Think stage mom but instead you have a nigger dad with hoop dreams. Bizarre.
I believe these boys have their own reality tv show and an overpriced clothing brand where they sell $500 niggerball shoes.
Daddy is going to be maddy when he hears about this.
Sebastian Hill
What a cheap and shitty looking shoe… family looks li,e shot as well, check out the 52% gap tooth
Matthew Turner
Why do mutts always have brows the slope out, like progressives. Are coons from miscegenatory families born to always follow the role TAD foresaw for them?
Alexander Evans
lol wait it was one of the ball brothers? the same ball brothers that came out of nowhere with their nigger father trying to sell shoes more expensive than jordans? you just know that coalburner is getting the shit kicked out of her right now.
Kevin Barnes
pic related is $400. just look at this shit. its even a got a coin slot at the bottom to help remind how you pissed your money away.
Carter Lopez
It would make him appear weak if he didn't act. It's also not like a politician could just say, "Meh, they're niggers you can keep them for all I care. Hell, if you like those three, I'll send you over 15 million more."
Grayson Cooper
That fabric pattern reminds me of coach seat upholstery on a run down Boeing 737 running regional flights in 1998
Nathan Morris
Way to disregard the rest of my post you autistic fuckwit
Alexander Powell
...
Michael Sanders
Yeah, he is acting as if Trump is a politician who gets elected based on public perception. Strange world. Retard.
Daniel Green
Totally radical style, dude.
Brody Sullivan
Not only has he publicly gotten a work superpower to heel over something trivial that could have been blown into a major international incident under the Dems, he has also saved the biggest and most lefty university system it's prized babbys - libshits are eternally grateful, basketball Americans are eternally grateful, the NCAA is eternally grateful, and if they fuck up again on his watch (the UC system), he can now tweet something along the lines of "remember the last time they dropped the Ball? I was so nice - not anymore!" and have all the Federal monies choked off. Where does the UC system stand then? They've got no power anymore, moral, or financial, as far as he is concerned.
Isaac Hall
trump got elected because if hillary won we'd already be in a civil war with a damn good chance of winning it seeing as we had the whole thing about her literally being a traitorous criminal
Jaxson Sanders
Just what we need a nigger lover in chief beholden to israel.
Parker Gray
The BBB crowd basically. They're the kind that will say "Trump is a real nigga" and all that. They were on the fence before, some sided with Trump while some didn't. Now this will solidly get them on his side. It was only 3 of them so I can see how he saw this as decent move. This hurts the left more than anything and turns more people against them since now this crowd will trust them even more.
Also, Trump may be baiting the left into attacking these guys and wanting them tossed in jail. That I want to see them try just because it will be funny to see the shitstorm that will ensue. I hate to use the chess meme but this all feels like it. Soon, Hillary's superpredators comments will make a come back.
Wew lad.
Carson Thompson
"Remember that time trump saved those 3 niggers in china?" "Yeah let's vote republican now!" Trump third term! -t grateful democrats
Cameron Sullivan
This is what coddling black kids leads to. International incidents.
Dylan Phillips
He's just a tool for us, user. A springboard. A stepping stone. Yeah.. that's the ticket!
Gabriel Scott
China>niggers on the ZOG hierarchy, it seems. Potential factor for WW3 could come from chaos between the two factions. Very interesting.
Jack Foster
If they're ever caught kneeling, I say we send them back to the heathen chinee.
Joseph Lee
Ugh. This is bad. Those shills must be delusional, by now.
Cooper Hall
Somehow I'm supposed to think this is bad?
Robert Cook
Also what's next, niggers go to phillipines for a sports competition and end up trying to hustle weed off Du30?
Henry Jenkins
I'm not sure whether these faggots are like shills or just autistic edgelords but either way they clearly don't understand the relevance of a us president intervening in a legal affair regarding his citizens in a foreign country when he's in said country on a diplomatic affair. Of course it would have been great for him to leave the niggers to the chink's gulags, but the amount of flak he would have received from these niggers and their advocates isn't worth appeasing the faggots online who froth at the mouth over going full 1488 at all times
Isaac Sullivan
Not even sneakers. Sunglasses.
Dylan Roberts
...
Jaxon Williams
Dayyuuuuuuuuum nigguz WE WUZ DEM B-BALLS AND SHEEEEEIT
Dylan Nguyen
If it was a white athlete that did something like this they would be kicked outta UCLA. Hell even a slant would have been kicked outta UCLA. But UCLA has a second set of rules for their nigger atheletes.
LA RWDS
I hope the next time someone does something wrong at UCLA they point to this incident as a reason for double standard. The UC system is kiked beyond belief.
Owen Perry
Maybe he just used them as an opportunity to send a message to the chinks. To demonstrate that the US can take whatever it wants from China.
Benjamin Bell
I wanted to make a post in that one thread about making new memes but for some reason on all of my browsers threads get fucked up half of the time if they have over 150ish posts. Anyways, someone who is a better memesmith than I should make something about how the media has reacted so differently to this than they did with Otto Warmbier.
>Warmbier is a regular, Jewish - but we know Jews are "white" when convenient student who goes to North Korea >allegedly (yes, this is important because it's -North. Fucking. Korea.- claiming this) steals a poster form a wall
But now:
Matthew Morgan
This actually has some memetic value. People are now associating Trump with the big baller brand and calling him a big baller while calling people who attack him small ballers and making fun of them. It's obvious now Trump just wanted a piece of that meme pie.
John Baker
I have an idea. . .
Jaxon Campbell
Lol. You best be trolling, you autistic fuckwit.
Lucas Peterson
Fucking cowardly. Nigger stole, now he's paying the toll. I can't wait to see CNN writing a hitpiece about how that evil Drumpf enabled their theft by creating a hostile political climate at home and abroad
Gavin Rodriguez
they never evolved from being hunter gatherers
Adrian Edwards
Lesser developed frontal lobe which gives them less empathy