In an extraordinary interview Monday with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “CNN Tonight,” Lavar Ball, father of UCLA Basketball’s LiAngelo Ball, explained that President Donald Trump would have gotten a “thank you” from him had he flown his son and the other two detained players home from China.

The players were being held in China for shoplifting while in the country for a basketball game.

Saturday, LaVar Ball refused to acknowledge Trump’s role in getting the three players home, to which Trump responded by saying he should have left the basketball players in jail.

Cuomo pressed Ball to thank Trump, but Ball said he would only thank the president had he let the trio come home with him on his plane.

“I would have said thank you if he put him on his plane and took him home,” the elder Ball told Cuomo. “Then I would have said thank you, Mr. Trump, for taking my boys out of China and bringing them back to the U.S. There’s a lot of room on that plane. I would have said thank you kindly for that.”

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