UCLA basketball players’ China shoplifting scandal barely noticed by mainland media
Even US President Donald Trump’s direct appeal to Xi Jinping to settle the matter failed to generate much interest among mainland news outlets
The saga of the three UCLA men’s basketball players who were detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting – leading to a direct appeal by US President Donald Trump to President Xi Jinping in Beijing to settle the matter – drew little attention in mainland Chinese media.
LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were detained in Hangzhou for questioning amid accusations of shoplifting before the team beat Georgia Tech in its season-opening game in Shanghai as part of an annual China game. Ball is the brother of Lonzo Ball, star of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers.
The rest of the University of California, Los Angeles, team returned home without the three.
A few mainland sports channels, citing US news outlets, reported on social media that the trio embarrassed themselves by being detained by police for what they said was stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to the team’s hotel.
Police required the players to remain at their luxury Hangzhou hotel on bail. The players returned to Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
Only one local newspaper, the Modern Express, which covers Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province and the surrounding communities, showed interest in the case. A published article detailed the paper’s inquiries with store salesmen to establish that the three players were together at the time of the purported theft. The sunglasses on sale ranged in price from 4,000 yuan (HK$4,714) to 5,000 yuan (HK$5,893), the paper reported.