LaVar Ball Talks Son LiAngelo Leaving UCLA, Giving Donald Trump Z02 Shoes on CNN

LaVar Ball told CNN on Tuesday morning he removed his son, LiAngelo Ball, from the UCLA Bruins basketball program because he felt the length of his suspension related to a shoplifting arrest in China was "ridiculous."

"That's one of the main reasons he went to UCLA is to play basketball. That's his passion," LaVar said. "And for them to prolong this and go on and on, it's ridiculous to me."

The Ball family patriarch also discussed the latest update on his public feud with United States President Donald Trump:

Trump sent out a series of messages on social media last month taking credit for the release of Ball, as well as former UCLA teammates Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, after the outspoken father of Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball refused to thank him:

LaVar previously told CNN's Chris Cuomo he wasn't sure why the President was so adamant about receiving a thank you.

"If you help, you shouldn't have to say anything," Ball said. "Let him do his political affairs and let me handle my son and let's just stay in our lane."

He added: "Did he help the boys get out? I don't know. ... If I was going to thank somebody I'd probably thank [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping]."

Meanwhile, he told Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com the current plan is to work directly with LiAngelo to prepare him for the 2018 NBA draft rather than join another college team.

"I'm going to make him way better for the draft than UCLA ever could have," Ball said. "He's not transferring to another school. The plan is now to get Gelo ready for the NBA draft."

He added his third son, LaMelo Ball, is still planning to stick with his commitment to UCLA, which is also the school Lonzo attended, but a source told ESPN's Arash Markazi the LiAngelo situation is "probably the end for the Ball family at the school," per Goodman.