Last week, President Trump stepped in and interceded on behalf of three young UCLA basketball players who foolishly were caught shoplifting in China. Shoplifting in China is not treated lightly and most likely would have resulted in a prison term for all three young men. President Trump was able to convince China s President Xi, however, to release the three young men from custody. When asked how the loudmouth father of  LiAngelo Ball felt about President Trump helping to secure the release of his son, LiAngelo, LaVar Ball suggested the President had little to do with the matter. Who?  Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump s involvement in the situation.  What was he over there for? Don t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out. They try to make a big deal out of nothing sometimes.  I m from L.A. I ve seen a lot worse things happen than a guy taking some glasses. President Trump took to Twitter to reply to LaVar Ball s ignorant comments: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, 2017So who is this crackpot LaVar Ball, and why would anyone in their right mind make such arrogant and ignorant remarks after the President of the United States just helped their son to escape a prison sentence in a foreign country?  Andrew Stephens of the Armchair All Americans did a pretty good job of summing up what a horrible human being the self-serving, money, and fame-obsessed LaVar Ball really is. In his article, Stephens reveals a sick man, who is so controlling of his 3 sons and their basketball careers, that he wouldn t even let them visit their very sick mother in the hospital, over fears that it could create media attention that could damage his merchandise brand. On March 15, 2017, Andrew Stephens of Armchair All Americans published an article about Lavar Ball titled Lavar Ball: The epitome of what is wrong with modern sports. It touched on helicopter parenting and the monetization of potentially profitable children.Stephens claimed that in the article, without commenting on upbringing tactics, I attempted to delve into Lavar Ball s seemingly unnecessary promotion of his own sons for his personal benefit.About an hour after the article was run, I received a comment on it from a member of the Ball family, who wishes to remain anonymous. The comment (which has since been removed to protect the email address and identity of the commenter) read as follows:- Wow. You nailed it. Although you don t even know the half of it. Lavar took over the high school program, added the Coach, his puppet (which is why he quit last year after becoming the national coach of the year) and Lavar stepped on and crushed countless other kids  careers and love for the game to get his kids on the court. If you are allowed to shoot at any time from any where and never come out of the game, any decent idiot could score 30 points.Also, Tina Ball, his wife had a stroke on Feb 21. She had life threatening skull surgery to relieve brain pressure   guess where Lavar was during the operation that could have killed his wife?   at the CHHS vs. LB Poly game with his sons, including Lonzo. He still has not allowed his kids to see their sick mother due to the media attention it would bring to him, and cause BBB sales to diminish. [Name of hospital] in [City of hospital], CA   Tina is there now and he only visits for 1 hour a few days a week, while her Mother has yet to leave her side. Pathetic!!! I was a bit skeptical when I initially viewed the comment. I figured that it was someone attempting to drive a smear campaign against the Ball family, seeing how Lavar was such a polarizing figure. But, the information was oddly specific.After a bit of deliberation, I contacted the email address listed with the comment. They confirmed through multiple email and social media confirmations that they were, in fact, a close relative of Lavar and Tina Ball. I also spoke with the hospital listed in the email. The hospital confirmed that Tina Ball was checked in as of 12:30 PM EST on March 15.Tina, who was very active on Twitter, stopped communication on February 19, which fits in with the timeline provided below by a member of the Ball family.Watch this video as the loud-mouth, obnoxious LaVar Ball is interviewed on the Skip and Shannon Undisputed sports show.One of the first questions the female host asked of LaVar was about his desire to have a reality show made about him and his family (Keep in mind, this interview took place shortly after a very serious stroke). It s hard not to pick up on the sadness expressed on the face of his oldest son Lonzo Ball, while his overbearing father dominates the conversation and makes a complete ass of himself:When confirming the identity of the member of the Ball family that commented via email, we received another large piece of harrowing information: Notice, she is not at any games, she is not at work, and she is not at home. Someone needs to ask the question, where is Tina? She is severely disabled and paralyzed on right side. Cannot talk and is questionable about her comprehension. Left side of her brain impacted with massive stroke, while at home on Feb. 21 (school holiday   President s day). Tina is a PE teacher in [City of school],CA [Name of school].Feb. 20: Tina Ball admitted at [Name of first hospital] ICUFeb. 21: Surgery to remove a portion of her skull to reduce swelling from the stroke (evening)Feb 21: Chino Hills vs LB Poly @ Cerritos College   evening game (same time as surgery) Lavar & Lonzo at the game with the other Ball boys   missed the surgery and post op. Did not come to hospital during or after surgery. The Ball boys are not allowed to see their mother, Lavar is afraid it will take away from their game(s). Lonzo had big game at ASU and U of A later that week. Also, media buzz would take away from all the interviews and media touring for Lavar + BBB brand would suffer. It literally is bigger than Tina s life, as evidenced by Lavar s approach. As a family member, I am embarrassed and feel so sorry for Tina, since Lavar is on a media tour, he visits her rarely, while her mother has stayed by her side continuously. The crux of the original story was rooted in that fact that Lavar Ball s priorities were self-motivated and not for the betterment of a  family brand.  After hearing the explicit details given to us, if these allegations are true   it only confirms one thing for Lavar Ball: money and fame are king.LaVar recently attempted to sell his Ball s Big Baller Brand for a billion dollars. When major shoe companies laughed at his offer, he raised his price to 3 billion dollars. How Ball ever got his product line this far is really quite amazing.  When LaVar Ball said he wanted $1 billion for a Big Baller Brand co-branding shoe deal for his three sons, the big shoe companies scoffed.After that rejection, Big Baller Brand released Lonzo Ball s first signature shoe, the ZO2, and decided to charge a minimum of $495 for a pair. LaVar told Colin Cowherd on Wednesday that companies like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour will regret not forking over $1 billion and that he s decided to raise the price for a deal. Now that Lonzo s headed to Los Angeles, what they should have done is give me a billion dollars and let me be on my way,  LaVar said, referring to the Lakers drawing the No. 2 pick in next month s NBA draft.But now? Apparently, the draft lottery results tripled Big Baller Brand s value. Now you know if they want to talk to me now, it just went up to $3 billion. Triple B s billion, billion, billion,  he told Sports Illustrated.LaVar had a chance to fix his embarrassing error of disrespecting the President for the gift he gave their family, but instead chose to double down on stupid, in one of the most painfully ignorant interviews you will ever witness, with CNN s Chris Cuomo: