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Nov. 22, 2017, 9:45 AM GMT / Updated Nov. 22, 2017, 9:45 AM GMT By Jason Linkins

We should all feel thankful to have this ongoing war of words between President Donald Trump and self-styled basketball wizard-king LaVar Ball in our lives this holiday season because, to be honest, it could have been so easily avoided had the protagonists possessed a modicum of common sense between them.

If LaVar’s son, LiAngelo — the middle child of what Ball senior has publicly positioned as a family of future hoops stars (the eldest son, Lonzo, is the starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers) — had not decided to join two of his UCLA teammates in a shoplifting expedition while in China, Trump would have never had the occasion to bring up these kids’ arrest with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

If none of that ever occurred, Trump would have never had the opportunity to demand on Twitter that the players thank him, drawing Père Ball into the fray himself. If Trump hadn't tweeted, Ball would have never publicly proclaimed his lack of gratitude, which means Trump wouldn’t have subsequently added, “LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!”

If none of that digital cockfighting had happened, we never would have gotten to see Ball’s off the rails performance on CNN Monday night. And we wouldn’t have all the call-outs and clap-backs that are yet to be delivered unto us, the most happy rubberneckers.

What Clarence the Angel is trying to tell us is that we really did have a wonderful life.