Lonzo Ball’s brother, LiAngelo Ball, and two other UCLA rookie basketball players will remain on house arrest at a Hangzhou, China hotel when the UCLA Bruins return to the U.S. after defeating Georgia Tech 63-60 in the season opener in Shanghai on Saturday.
6-foot-5 LiAngelo, 18, Cody Riley, 19, and Jalen Hill, 17, will not return to the United States when the team departs China on Saturday.
The three players were arrested on Tuesday after they allegedly shoplifted a pair of expensive sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton boutique in a shopping center next door to their hotel.
Police say the trio also shoplifted items from two other stores in the shopping center, which houses Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Salvatore Ferragamo boutiques.
The players were released on bond on Wednesday and confined to their lakeside hotel. They did not suit up or play in the season opener on Saturday.
Chinese authorities have up to 37 days to decide whether to pursue official approval for a formal arrest, Margaret Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, told the Los Angeles Times.
LiAngelo’s father LaVar Ball, right, and his younger brother LaMelo, 16, left, visited LiAngelo, center, at the UCLA hotel on Wednesday.
ESPN reports LaVar and LaMelo have been staying at the team hotel all week.
LaVar and LaMelo signed autographs at a Big Baller Brand pop-up shop in Shanghai on Friday night, where about 100 people stood in line.
Father and son will leave Shanghai for Hong Kong on Sunday. They will open another pop-up shop in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
“I’m going to wait until I get some more intel on what’s going on, and then I can tell you what’s up,” LaVar told a reporter as he left the team hotel on Wednesday.
When asked if he was worried about LiAngelo, he replied: “He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. Everybody making it a big deal. It ain’t that big of a deal.”
