Thursday, November 16, 2017
Blake and Charlie AOTW
Article Title:
U.C.L.A. Suspends 3 Players; They Admitted to Shoplifting in China
UCLA basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill suspended
Article Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/sports/ucla-liangelo-ball-suspended.html
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/21424183/ucla-bruins-players-suspended-indefinitely-china-shoplifting-incident
Discussion Question(s):
Would this issue be as big or as widely spread if one off the ball brothers (LiAngelo Ball) wasn’t involved in the shoplifting incident in China ?
Do you think President Trump made the right decision to get involved with the incident and why?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I do not think the crime would have made the headlines without the involvement of LiAangelo Ball. LiAngelo's father made the family famous because of his remarks about LiAngelo's brother being better than Jordan. As a result of these comment all eyes have been on the family and weather or not Lavar will meet the standards set by his father. I am glad Trump was able to get the three boys out of prison in china however I don't think the passive aggressive tweet was necessary.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an extremely ridiculous and stupid move by the 3 UCLA players, especially LiAngelo, who basically has anything and everything he wants. I think that it would still be somewhat of a big deal if other people stole, but if you look at the headlines of most news about this story, it's always "Ball-brother and 2 OTHERS" stole from Louis Vuitton or whatever store. Once you have TV shows for you and your family, you will have to take care of your reputation because many people will know who you are. I think that the initial punishment did sound pretty harsh (10 yrs in jail) but rules are rules in China and it's the fault of the UCLA players that they didn't know any better. I think Trump did make the right decision but I think that the 3 players should learn a lesson from this event. I'm not really sure about the legal issues with stealing in China but it must've been that serious that the President of the US had to go and get the kids. This is almost as if 3 elementary school kids got in trouble and their parents had to pick them up from school. I think it's a life lesson for 3 boys.
ReplyDeleteWould this issue be as big or as widely spread if one off the ball brothers (LiAngelo Ball) wasn’t involved in the shoplifting incident in China?
ReplyDeleteNo I don’t think it would’ve been as big of a deal because the Ball brothers are already all over social media, so it made it a bigger deal. There have been cases before where an American stole something in China, and it wasn’t all over social media. The Balls are on social media almost every day, and this only puts them on more.
Do you think President Trump made the right decision to get involved with the incident and why?
I do think Trump made the right decision to get involved because I think if he didn’t, there would be a lot of anger towards him. If he didn’t make the decision to get involved, LiAngelo would be in a Chinese jail, and most likely getting constantly abused.
I think that because the Ball brothers are already involved in the media and are a well know family based upon their sport and their reality tv show, it would not be as widely publicized if they weren't so apparent in the public eye. I believe they would have gotten media coverage because they play a college sport and could have faced jail time in a different country but it would not be anything this large. President Trump did make the right decision in getting involved because he got those boys out of China and out of facing any hard punishments from the Chinese government. China is known for having a tough punishment and federal system and if the president of the united states had not gotten involved, the boys could have been in extreme danger and maybe even death.
ReplyDeleteI think this issue would have been covered if Liangelo Ball wasn't involved, but not to the magnitude that it is right now. The Ball family has been at the center of sports media for a while now so I think the media felt like they needed to make this the center of their coverage. The crime itself was still news worthy because American citizens shoplifted in a Chinese store which is a serious offense. I think President Trump made the right decision to get involved because it made the process much swifter and brought the players home and out of a bad situation. Now they can be punished in America instead of China.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the issue would have received massive media coverage regardless of LiAngelo Ball's involvement. As a top division one school in the country, any news surrounding the team would make headlines especially an incident as severe as a crime that could have landed them in prison for 3-10 years. Additionally, the fact that the issue was international and involved China factored into the amount of media coverage there was. However, given the Ball family's recent popularity, the fact that a ball brother was involved definitely fueled the media coverage. The Ball family has safely gained celebrity status and whenever a celebrity does something notable, there will always be advanced media coverage. In the end, this was a big issue regardless of who was involved but LiAngelo's involvement definitely added to the media attention. I do believe that president Trump's involvement was the right decision. In what became somewhat of a national issue, he insured the swift recovery of the athletes and delivered which shows his power to the American people and the world. Additionally, he was able to resolve this issue very quickly and that allowed him and the nation to continue to focus on more pressing issues.
ReplyDeleteI think that no matter who was involved in the issue, it would've made the headlines due to the severity and unusualness of the situation. However, I think that due to the name recognition of the players and the school, it made the situation more evident in the news. In addition, the 3 players commit a very serious crime, potentially resulting in 3-10 years in prison, which also added a reason why it was widely well known in the news. All of these factors combined contributed to its high status in the media. In regards to Trump's involvement, I think it was a good idea that he got involved in the situation, but that in addition definitely made it more prominent in the media. He did resolve it quickly, and other leaders of other countries may've not been able to do. Looking at the whole situation, I think that every factor in the situation led way to its noteworthy position in the media.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the incident would be as widely covered by sports media and other news if the president didn't get involved or that one of the players was part of the 'Ball' family. In terms of the player LiAngelo Ball being widely known is due to his father being a big talker for his sons, (all are upcoming future NBA prospects), the brand they have, "BBB", and the huge personality that their father has. The incident would have made sports headlines, but not in the way that it did because of the name associated with LiAngelo. With the Ball last name carrying around a lot of weight around social media, President Trump probably would not have done anything about the situation if the media did not jump on top of this story so heavily. In my opinion, the players would have been suspended from UCLA anyway, but the name Ball brings a lot more to the table because of where they are in the limelight.
ReplyDeleteWould this issue be as big or as widely spread if one off the ball brothers (LiAngelo Ball) wasn’t involved in the shoplifting incident in China ?
ReplyDeleteI do not think that this issue would be as big or widely spread if none of the ball brothers were involved. Recently, with all that is happening in the ball family such as the new Facebook show specifically about the family, they have been receiving a lot of attention and because of that attention, news sources know that Americans will be tuning in to hear what happened and it will be beneficial for them to talk about it so they covered the UCLA issue a lot. However, if it had been with some other, lesser known player, not nearly as many Americans would want to hear about the incident.
Do you think President Trump made the right decision to get involved with the incident and why?
I think that Trump made the right decision. Those boys obviously made a stupid decision and to give them another chance means that they will learn from the incident and become better people. If they had not been freed by Trump, the boys would could have been in Chinese prison for at least a year and may not have been able to finish their college education and would’ve left a large hole in the UCLA basketball team. However, even though I believe Trump was right in his decision, I also believe that this issue doesn’t really pertain to him. It is pretty obvious to me that Trump took action only because the issue has been receiving a lot of attention and it would look good for Trump. In reality, the Ball family and the other players’ families should’ve had to dealt with the situation themselves.
If this incident did not involve a Ball brother I still think it would be making headlines. The players needed help from the President of the United States and government, it was a big deal. I think by saying "Ball brother and others arrested" the media was using his name to their advantage. I do think Trump made the right decision being that there have been numerous innocents involving Americas in Asia that have gone wrong. However, I don't think he needs to further comment on it or make it a bigger deal. Hopefully now the players realize what a dumb decision it was and can prove themselves again to fans and other players.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that this would have turned into a big deal if LiAngelo Ball was not involved. There have been a lot of athletes who were caught shoplifting and nothing happened. One example is Jameis Winston stealing crabs from a market while he was in college. He didn’t even face a punishment for this and these three UCLA basketball players should not be punished severely. These three young men committed a crime in another country and would most likely be tried unfairly in China. His father has become a household name across America. The entire Ball family has become famous over the past 6 months and due to lavar Ball insane takes on basketball a lot of people don't like the ball family. This is the main reason this situation has been blown out of control. I think that president Trump should have gotten involved and he made the right decision. He helped get these young men with a lot of potential out of a life ruining situation.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this issue would not nearly be as widely spread without Liangelo Ball being involved. The ball brothers receive tons of attention as they are top basketball players in the country. The other players are not necessarily on the same tier that the ball brothers are on, regarding both popularity and skill. This made it so when the players were caught, nearly all of the attention to the ball family, not to the other players caught as well. On top of that, the Ball family has a reality television show, which contributes to their high profile life. If Liangelo Ball was not one of the players caught, this story never would have blown up into what it had become.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with President Trump's decision to get involved in this situation. Liangelo (18) is a man, not a boy, and he should know better than to steal, especially in a different country where they are much more strict about stealing. His family is very wealthy, and there was no reason for him to steal. I believe that he should have to serve his sentence, to teach him a lesson.
I believe that this issue would not have been as widespread if one of the Ball brothers was not involved in the shoplifting incident in China because sports news is a very big part of media. The Ball family name could similar to Kanye West's name in terms of popularity in media, and think about the headline if Kanye West was caught shoplifting in China. That would not have been good now would it? But it one of us were caught shoplifting in China, it would not make many headlines, if any at all, because we are not relevant to the media, and there would most likely not even be a mention of Trump being able to help us out there because we are not as valuable as the Ball family is. Also, it could also be said that Trump relates to the Ball family because Trump has built his name up to one that everyone knows, and Lavar Ball is trying to do the same for his family. Therefore, I believe that this issue would not have been as widespread if one of the Ball brothers was not involved in the shoplifting incident in China.
ReplyDeleteI believe that If one of the Ball brothers weren't involved in the shop lifting case I don't think that it would have been publicized nation wide. I think that yes China would be unfair to the perpetrator, however I don't think that this case would be so well known. I don't think that they should be expelled from the school or the team. However, I do think that there should be some kind of punishment so it doesn't seem as if they are getting away with a crime.
ReplyDeleteSince the Ball family has been making such a big name for itself over the past year, it is obvious that this would have such a widespread presence. It's going to hurt LiAngelo because he's still making his name bigger in the basketball world and now people might look down on him or see him differently as a person. Trump made a good decision to get them out of jail. Unfortunately, an apology and a thank you is not enough for him so he had to go on a twitter rant as to why he should have left them in jail. If he hadn't gotten into the situation, a lot of people would have been angry with him being stuck in a Chinese prison.
ReplyDeleteI think that this issue would not be as prevalent if one of the Ball brothers was not involved. Because this family is well-known and famous, it is a much larger topic of discussion. If another player that was not a Ball brother was involved with an incident such as this, shoplifting in China, it would be a big issue, however not as widespread. Especially with Trump getting involved, it makes the issue larger. I am unsure whether Trump made the right decision or not, as I have controversial viewpoints of it. On one hand, he helped out these boys and their families and future lives a lot, however on the other hand this issue really had nothing to do with him. It wasn't his place to get involved, yet in the end it helped out.
ReplyDelete