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Mark Cuban.
- Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban weighed in on a potentially impending feud between President Donald Trump and outspoken businessman LaVar Ball.
- Cuban predicted that Trump would soon be wearing Big Baller brand apparel in the White House.
Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban had a bold prediction Tuesday after President Donald Trump took a shot at college basketball star LiAngelo Ball on Twitter.
Ball's father - the bombastic, headline-grabbing businessman LaVar Ball, whom Axios once wrote used "the Trump playbook to conquer sports media" - would send Trump a pair of his "Big Baller Brand" sneakers for Christmas, Cuban told Business Insider.
"I can't wait to see President Trump walking around the Oval Office in a Trump branded suit and the Big Baller Brand sneakers I'm sure LaVar will send him for Christmas!" Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, said in an email.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump wondered on Twitter if the younger Ball and two additional UCLA basketball players whom he help secure a release in China for will "thank him" for intervening. The three players - Ball, Cody Riley, and Jalen Hill - arrived back in the US from China on Tuesday after being held at the team's hotel in Shanghai on charges of shoplifting at a Louis Vuitton store.
During his trip to China, Trump asked President Xi Jinping to intervene in the case. UCLA is reportedly weighing punishment for the players.
"Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump?" Trump tweeted. "They were headed for 10 years in jail!"
"I had a great conversation with President Xi," Trump told reporters prior to the report that the players were being sent home. "What they did was unfortunate. You know, you're talking about very long prison sentences. They do not play games."
Trump called Xi "terrific" in handling the subject.
Ball, whose son Lonzo is a rookie on the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, has developed an outsized personality and brand, often dwarfing his basketball-playing children. Many on Twitter predicted Trump's tweet would lead to a clash between the elder Ball and Trump.
Cuban is weighing whether to launch a presidential campaign in 2020, and was recently reported to be discussing such a run with Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist. Cuban told Business Insider that they had not discussed a run, but do text each other occasionally.