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After the three UCLA basketball students were released from China after a shoplifting incident at three stores, President Trump took to Twitter to express how he thought he deserved thanks and gratitude from the players. His tweet stated, “Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!” After the players arrived home on Tuesday they had no comment, and held a press conference today. One player stated “‘I take full responsibility for the mistake I have made of shoplifting,’ Cody Riley said. ‘I know this goes beyond me letting my school down — I’ve let the entire country down.’ ‘To President Trump and the entire United States government, thank you for taking the time to intervene on our behalf.” The three players were arrested the day before Trump landed in China, he said he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the whole incident. The two were able to resolve the issue and Trump said, “He was terrific, and they're working on it right now. And hopefully everything is going to work out." Now that the players have returned home the university has suspended them indefinitely until the school can work through the legal process and issues. They will also have to prove their true characters to the school, and that “they will not be defined by this incident.” In addition, they won't be allowed to travel with the team or practice.
- How long should their suspension be? Or should they be kicked off the team completely?
- Was it appropriate for Donald Trump to exercise his power in this incident?
18 comments:
When I saw that LiAngelo Ball got locked up, I was in tears. Not tears of sadness obviously, but of how funny this man's stupidity is. Personally, I think these guys should get kicked off the team. Not only does this look bad on the basketball team but on UCLA as a whole, as their big-name student was dumb enough to try and shoplift when his dad runs a real, potential million dollar organization. Better kick them off now instead of risking more negative media attention during LiAngelo's tenure at UCLA.
On a side note, I hope Trump gets a couple hoodies or some shoes from Big Baller Brand, as a gift of Lavar Ball's gratitude to our supreme leader Donald Trump. If Trump becomes an icon of BBB, my life will be complete. This whole fiasco was 2017 in a nutshell.
I do agree that UCLA did the right thing by kicking the students off of their team. It was wrong of them to shoplift in the first place and it ruined their chances for basketball, which is a reasonable consequence. However, I think the way President Trump handled the issue is childish. He resorts to Twitter for absolutely everything and it shows his true character. In this instance, it was almost as if he was gloating to all of America about how he got these students out of China. His tweet was not appropriate, especially if he wants China to take a stance on North Korea with us. Tweeting his late night thoughts have never benefitted our country as he continues to show.
While I agree with Melanie and Josh on the point that the actions of the basketball players were incorrect and "dumb" (for lack of a better word), I do think that they should eventually be allowed to participate on the basketball team in some way. I say eventually, because I do not think that the players should get off easy for a crime like shoplifting, but also they are quite young, and young adults are not really the best at making smart, responsible decisions. Basically, I think that they should be given a second chance. As for president Trump's actions, I think that it was nice of him to speak with the Chinese government and ask that the boys be freed. What I don't like, is Trump's tweet. Like Melanie, I believe that his tweet was very unnecessary and quite petty, asking for gratitude.
This looks extremely bad for UCLA but I don't believe they should be permanently kicked off the team. Like Emily mentioned, the players are young and are not the best at making decisions. They should be punished but the punishment shouldn't end their athletic career. With Trump, it is pretty stupid for him to post a tweet like that. But then again, Trump tweets about a bunch of other stuff that aren't necessary as well.
I agree with Emily. The players should receive second chance at playing, but it is all confusing because of how they represented their school in a negative light. Like Josh said, it just does not make sense for LiAngelo Ball to do this since he comes from a lot of money, and now he just ruined his career. Many people steal, and shoplift and it just so happened that the three players had to get caught in another part of the world. Trump's tweet is childish and is so annoying to look at just like all of his tweets, but he really did not have to act so ignorant in this case because he did a good deed.
I agree that UCLA should allow the players to continue to play on the team once the school can sort out the legal issues and negative press; however, I do think they need to show that they have grown from this incident and truly feel remorseful before this can happen. Many young adults shoplift, and while that definitely does not make it right in any way, the futures they have been working towards should not have to be ruined because of a seemingly minor/inconsequential bad decision that ended up getting a lot of press. I still think that they need to show maturity before being able to play again, and I hope that they truly recognize that what they did was wrong. As for Trump, while it was nice for him to help release them, his motivations for doing so seem to be pretty selfish. He tweeted that he wanted them to thank him, so I would not be surprised if one of his intentions behind talking to Xi Jinping was just to earn public praise to strengthen his ego.
These made a really stupid mistake, and should be punished severely, but I do believe that they should have a second chance playing for UCLA. I think a good punishment would be for them to be suspended for at least 10 games, and at the most they should be suspended for the whole season. They have to be able to learn from this mistake and move on. I think that if another incident comes from any of the three players arrested, then they should be kicked off the team. As far as I know, this is the first time any of those players have done something like this, so they need to accept their punishment and make sure it never happens again. Also, the students should be thanking Donald Trump, but his tweet does seems rather unnecessary.
I think that there suspension is fair, because they shouldn't be playing for the team while the school figures out the legal affairs. I don't think they should be kicked off the team because it was mistake that they can learn from, and taking away their opportunity to play basketball would be too harsh. I think they are lucky that Trump stepped in to help them, but I agree with Nicolas. I think his tweet was unnecessary and he should be mature enough to not demand a thank you.
I believe the players should be expelled from UCLA. If normal students were to commit the same mistake, the school wouldn't be so lenient.There is a level of accountability that the kids hold and they shouldn't be allowed to be a part of a team with their misconduct. This will reflect badly on not just the basketball team, but as UCLA as an institution. If you don't give a severe punishment for the actions, there is an invincibility given to the athletes which can be dangerous. It doesn't make sense that they would go from a potential 10 years of imprisonment, to back on the court like nothing ever happened. LiAngelo isn't that good too, so who cares. In this situation there really is no point that Trump shouldn't have exercised his power. I think he did something that was good but he needs to chill with the tweet, they thanked him an hour later.
I agree that the players should be punished but allowed back on the team after their punishment. I believe that people can learn from their mistakes and this is a really bad mistake that they can learn from. Obviously, this gives a really bad image to the school but eventually, these images and scandals blow over. I think they should not be denied their chance to play a sport that they love and are good at. Although their actions were immature and showed a lack of judgments, everyone makes mistakes and as long as there are consequences and they can learn from them, I believe that they should be accepted back on the team. As for Donald Trump's tweet, I think that was a bit immature and he should hold himself to higher standards.
I somewhat agree with what Chris has to say. I don't think the players should be expelled from the school, but I don't think they should have the right to stay on the basketball team. Like he said, they should be held responsible for their actions. I just think it's funny how Trump calls Kaepernick "Son of Bitch" for standing up for the injustice minorities have faced, but condones stealing by letting the team off the hook. Seems kind of stupid honestly. He really had no purpose in letting them go. If sport teams don't want players on their teams because they "make them look bad" then they think stealing makes them look good? honestly it's just really hypocritical.
More than anything, I find this situation to be incredibly ironic. Like Marlene said, on one hand, Trump is causing a firestorm over Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protests over the injustice faced by African-Americans, but on the other hand, he doesn't see shoplifting as a serious offense. Peaceful protests and shoplifting: one of these things is essential to democracy, and the other is a federal crime. And Trump is condoning the federal crime while condemning the democratic practice. While Trump's tweet was petty to say the least, at the end of the day, it's just talk. The main problem I have with his engagement with these players is that this deal will inevitably come back to hurt us in some future trade agreement. There is no reason China had to accept this proposal, and could've easily locked up the players for years, so this had to have been a rare (and generous) exception. I have no doubt that China will expect its "generosity" to be reciprocated by the US at some point in the future.
I don't think that the players should be expelled from UCLA, however they should at very least be suspended from the basketball team. As for Trump, while I can understand him wanting praise for having them released, it is a little ridiculous to go onto Twitter to brag about how great and deserving of praise he is. Just from his tweet, it seems like he doesn't really care about the players, but instead just wants to improve his image.
This is one of those Trump decisions that I seriously have no idea whatsoever about the reasons behind his actions. It's not like I don't agree with the perspective he is taking on a stance, I literally do not understand why he chose to do what he did. I mean, was this decision made to improve the image of the United States and the image of Trump himself? I can't really imagine that there is much people in the nation that agree these basketball players need leniency for such a stupid crime, so it seems like Trump is really acting with no regard for the rest of the nation and in his personal interests.
The only reason Trump would get involved in the situation is to look good and have good publicity. He wanted praise for this and when he heard about it he saw it as an opportunity to look good and he took it. Its obvious from the tweet he only acted to make himself look good and get a thank you. as for the players they should just be suspended from the team for a while not expelled.
I believe it was entirely appropriate for the UCLA basketball players to be suspended because of how long a sentence for stealing in China is. Additionally, I believe that since they had the possibility of facing 10 years in prison, an expulsion is well within the rights of the university. If I was the coach for the UCLA team, I would be extremely furious that the leader of our nation had to intervene on the behalf of complete idiots on my team. It is probably also better that China is not holding on to the UCLA students because then they do not have any leverage over the US in future negotiations.
While I do think that what the guy did was wrong. I still don't think he should be kicked off the team permanently. China and America laws are vastly different than each other. China rules are very strict and they do not tolerate a lot of exception. A student coming from America to go to China for a basketball tournament, I hardly think they read up the kinds of laws china has. I think they should get a long suspension for what they did.
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