LaVar Ball Sent Trump 'Patriotic' Big Baller Brand Sneakers

Big Baller Brand founder and CEO LaVar Ball, who had a verbal spat with President Donald Trump last month, reportedly sent three pairs of his company’s basketball sneakers to the White House.

"I sent three pairs of Big Ballers to 1600 Pennsylvania. One in red, one in white and one in blue to show we’re patriotic," said Ball, according to a Twitter post Monday from ESPN’s Daren Rovell.

Ball offered to send Trump the $450 sneakers during a Nov. 20 interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, where he seemingly downplayed the president’s involvement in the release of his son LiAngelo Ball and two other UCLA Bruin freshmen players, who were detained last month on shoplifting charges in China.

During an interview with TMZ Sports, LaVar Ball claimed he sent Trump a few pairs of the "Z02" Big Baller Brand sneakers following the Golden State Warriors 127-123 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

"I sent Trump his shoes," he said. "He should have them unless they took 'em!"

LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill were held in China where the group had been accused of shoplifting from a Louis Vuitton store in Hangzhou while the Bruins prepped for a game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

After the freshmen were freed, the charges were dropped and the players were suspended indefinitely from the team. Trump then took to Twitter and urged the players to thank him, then a back and forth between the president and LaVar Ball ensued.

"Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you, President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!" Trump wrote.

Trump, during a diplomatic visit to Beijing last month, claimed he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to expedite the release of the players. LaVar Ball then diminished Trump's role in LiAngelo Ball's release during an ESPN interview.

"Who?" he said of Trump's involvement. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out. As long as my boy's back here, I'm fine, I'm happy with how things were handled."

Trump responded, suggesting he "should have left" the players "in jail" because Ball refused to thank him.

"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," he tweeted. "I should have left them in jail!"

Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban may have predicted LaVar Ball would eventually send Big Baller Brand merchandise to the president.

"I can’t wait to see President Trump walking around the Oval Office in a Trump-branded suit and the Big Baller Brand sneakers I’m sure LaVar will send him for Christmas!" Cuban wrote in an email to Business Insider last month.